Martin O’Neill has said that some of Celtic’s summer signings have been ‘surprised’ by the pace of Scottish football.

The Celtic boss was discussing his changes to the side after a dramatic 3-2 win over Besiktas which secured the team’s first points on the board of their European campaign.

Martin O’Neill on Celtic changes: ‘It takes a wee bit of time to adapt’

O’Neill said when asked about his wholesale changes after the game: “Well, when everybody gets a proper chance. Jordan Lotomba, that was the first game that he started. So you’re getting to know.

“And really, there’s a couple of other players who didn’t get on tonight, like Oliver Sorensen and people — you don’t absolutely know yet what they can do on a basis here, of playing both European matches and obviously the difficulty of playing the domestic games.

“The domestic games are not easy. I think the players who have come into the football club have been surprised in many aspects by the pace of the domestic game, believe it or not.

“I’m not saying everything is a great, great moment, but it is the pace of the game, and they haven’t been able to. It takes a wee bit of time to adapt. But when we do, then we should know.

“But you keep talking about what we know as their best team — we have to change. We have to have other players come into the side, because we cannot sustain this really on a basis like we’re doing.

“So you’re going into big European games; Besiktas are a very fine side. They might be disappointed tonight, but we’ve beaten them, and that was a big result for us.