Celtic may need injured star Landon Emenalo back sooner than they thought. The Bhoys lost their Europa League opener against Ferencvaros on Thursday night, losing 3-1 at Parkhead.
It wasn't a disastrous performance from Martin O'Neill's men, but it lacked bravery and conviction, and too often the Hoops are finding themselves on the wrong end of scorelines in big games.
There were a number of disappointing performances on Thursday night, let's start with that. But Kieran Tierney is becoming a defensive concern.
We all know what Tierney can offer going forward, and he showed it with his assist for Celtic's opening goal. But the bottom line is that the Scotland international is there to be a left-back, not a left-winger.
It's starting to look as though he might be more suited to the latter, with defensive mistakes becoming a little too frequent.
Tierney disappointed in the Old Firm on Sunday, giving away the second goal by joining the two centre-backs in trying to win a header while his man drifted out and waited for the ball to drop at his feet, allowing him a free shot.
On Thursday night, Tierney was at fault for the first goal, failing to get anywhere near close enough to his man, who was allowed a free cross, which was turned into the net by a Liam Scales deflection.
The second, after Tierney had somewhat redeemed himself with an assist, again came from the left side, while the tricky Bamidele Yusuf beat Tierney all ends up, reaching the byline with some pace and a sidestep before cutting the ball back for a clever finish.
That's three goals in the last week that Tierney has given away, and that cannot be ignored.
Perhaps fortunately for the experienced left-back, O'Neill doesn't have too many options. Liam Scales can play there, offering more defensive solidity, but he cannot regularly get forward. The other option is new loan signing Landon Emenalo, who is currently out injured and not due to return for a couple of weeks.
The bigger issue is that Emenalo is not in the Europa League squad, so Scales really is the only option until January in Europe.
Either way, Tierney is going to have to become more aware of his defensive positioning to stay in the starting XI, with this becoming a real issue.
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