Liam Scales admits the responsibility for Celtic's disappointing form lies with the more experienced players.
It has been a frustrating time for the Bhoys, who have now gone two league games without a win, losing the most recent outing, against Falkirk, but the main point of concern has been the Europa League.
Celtic have lost all three of their Europa League games so far, and they will likely struggle to get anything from Thursday night's home clash with Besiktas.
That will leave Celtic with a lot to do if they want to progress to the next stage of the competition, and it's a reminder of how poorly equipped the team was coming into the season.
“There’s been a lot of ins and outs and people are probably still feeling out the club," Scales said in the pre-match press conference ahead of Thursday night's date with Besiktas.
“I don’t think everyone understands, when they first come, how big the club is and it can take a while. The hard thing is you don’t really have time to settle in.
“It’s a difficult thing to do when you lose close to 10 players and 10 new players come in. It takes time. So we just need to keep pushing and get back to the place where we were a couple of years ago.”
He quickly added: “I don’t want to sound like I’m blaming the new players. That’s not the case at all. We do need to take responsibility because the responsibility lies with the more experienced players and players who have experienced what the club is like. We probably do need to lead by example a bit more.
“Also confidence comes into it. If you’re maybe doubting yourself a little bit, that can contribute to a loss of form.
“I don’t want to point fingers or pick apart who’s been playing well and who hasn’t. We’re a team. Overall, the level just hasn’t been quite good enough and we’re just slightly off it. We know the standards. We haven’t been meeting the standards of the club and what we’ve set in the last few years. So we know that it’s important for us to get the club back where it should be.
“It’s always been the same here, you need to win every week, and we haven’t been doing that. So we understand that’s not good enough and we know how important it is to get on a run of form and build some momentum.”
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