Liam Scales accepts more experienced Celtic players need to lead by example

Celtic's Liam Scales is a Steve Welsh/Press Association.

Liam Scales pointed to an influx of new players unfamiliar with the pressures of playing for Celtic as he discussed their inconsistent start to the season.

But the Irish defender recognises that it is up to experienced players like himself to lead by example and get Celtic back to regular victories.

Celtic have lost six and drawn one of their last 10 games and go into Thursday’s Europa League clash with Besiktas on zero points from three games.

Scales said: “There’s been a lot of ins and outs and people are probably still feeling out the club.

“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.” 

Of the players featured in Celtic’s 2-0 defeat at Falkirk on Sunday, 11 were at the club last season. The Bairns had eight summer signings on the pitch at some stage.

Scales said: “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.”