Exclusive: Former Celtic star makes squad depth claim and identifies key area which ‘can be the difference’ against Rangers

Jackie McNamara has outlined the importance of Celtic’s squad depth moving forward as they aim to continue their dominance of Scottish football by clinching a first Treble under the leadership of Ange Postecoglou and an 11th top-flight title in 13 years.

The former Hoops captain, who played in a golden era for the Parkhead club under legendary boss Martin O’Neill, has been hugely impressed by Postecoglou’s impact during his time in Glasgow’s East End and reckons his side will be a tough nut for Rangers to crack during Sunday’s Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden Park.

Ex-defender McNamara reckons the biggest difference between the two Old Firm giants at present is due to Celtic having a greater spread of competition for places as he highlighted how both clubs have coped with a number of injuries sustained to key players throughout the course of the campaign.

January signing Yuki Kobayashi has excelled when called upon to deputise for either Cameron Carter-Vickers or Carl Starfelt at centre-back, with McNamara insisting it is hugely important for Celtic to keep their foot on the gas and strengthen further over the summer.

He also identified the one area of the pitch which could give his old club the edge once again at the national stadium this weekend.

Speaking exclusively to GlasgowWorld, McNamara said: “You need to have that competition there to push you on to do well. I think Celtic will obviously want to improve in the Champions League from last year.

“(Cameron) Carter-Vickers had that little knock recently and Carl Starfelt had been out through injury before that, so you need players that are going to be as good, if not better, to come in and apply that pressure to win the starting jersey. The whole squad need to be pushing each other in every position.

“Rangers have similarly had to deal with a number of injuries to key players this season, which has maybe left them a bit short in certain areas. It will be interesting to see which players will be moved on first this summer as they have a lot of boys that are out of contract.

“In the last Old Firm game, I didn’ think there was much between the two teams. Celtic were clinical on the day, largely due to Kyogo’s finishing and sometimes that can be the difference. It doesn’t always come down to the overall play, but it’s about maintaining that over the course of an entire season and Celtic have been utterly relentless.

“They haven’t given Rangers a chance to catch them in the title race. Since Michael Beale came in, there’s been no leeway which has been pretty impressive to watch.”