Brendan Rodgers has said that he expects his players to show a response to his criticism of their recent performances and says they will improve.

The Celtic boss was unhappy with the goal conceded in the 1-1 draw with Suduva in the Europa League play-off on Thursday, saying that the defending was "a real, real concern", and suggesting the players lacked hunger and pride.

He backed up those comments on Friday, saying that the team "needs to be better".

"I haven't had to do it too often but I think it's one where we're a very tight group so we would expect a response," he said.

"I think it wasn't overly strong but I was just pointing out that in the game we made a good start but conceded from a basic, static set piece situation and we need to be better. It's as simple as that.

"We scored a goal away in a European game, which is important, but didn't really follow that through for the rest of the game.

"But we had positives. Young Mikey Johnston came in and played and did very well in his first European start. I thought he was very bright and exciting so that was great for him. And we have the opportunity next week to finish the job."

Rodgers admitted that performances in the early stages of the season hadn't been up to the standard set in his first two years at Celtic Park but said that major absences had been a factor and that he believed the problems could be fixed.

"I think it's been sort of continual, really," he said. "It's been a difficult pre-season for us, there's no doubt about that.

"We haven't quite found the fluency and the rhythm and we've had one or two important players missing for us, which meant that our performance level hasn't been where we want it to be.

"It's still very early so we'll find the solutions for that and look to focus on performance because it's not just about the winning."

During Rodgers's time at the club numerous defensive line-ups have been fielded and injuries have occasionally forced players to be deployed out of position. He acknowledged the lack of stability but said it wasn't a full explanation for the defensive lapses.

"Every manager or coach will tell you, you have got to have some periods when players are out, but ideally you want players that have that robustness to play and be there every week and carry that bit of luck as well to steer clear of injuries," he said. "It's been constant change for us in there for numerous reasons. When it's like that then stability can be difficult.

"However, we can still do better. The goals we concede are very, very simple straightforward goals. We have a lot of domination in the games, creating opportunities and the little bits of defending we have to do, we all feel we can be better in those moments. That's something we have to strive for.

"It's always collective. Of course everyone will look for defenders but we defend as a team, from the front to the back. We always have to ensure that fundamentally.

"If you look to our record-breaking season in the first season, we defended really, really well in terms of the intensity, press and aggression and that always leads to great opportunities to score, and we end up with our record goals.

"So it's collective and it's everyone's responsibility. But certainly any good team will always ensure they have two really good centre-halves that can dominate. We have centre-halves here that can do that. It's just ensuring the availability and the consistency."