TWICE, in Celtic colours, he emerged from Barcelona’s Camp Nou with a draw. On home turf, he helped take the scalps of Juventus, FC Porto and Olympique Lyon among others.

Times and budgets, of course, have changed considerably since Chris Sutton led the line of an expensively-assembled side alongside such prodigious talents as Henrik Larsson and John Hartson, but the demands remain exhausting at Parkhead and the expectations are clear.

“It is Molde,” said Sutton. “You have to respect them and they are a threat, but it’s a game in which we expect Celtic to turn up and they have to turn up.

“They are a team who have turned over Fenerbahce, they are well-organised and have their strengths.

“Having said that, they are now sixth in the Norwegian league and you ask yourself: What do Celtic fans expect from this game?

“Celtic are not playing Barcelona. They eventually have to stand up and make a statement and I don’t think it is unreasonable to expect a response.”

Sutton’s words can often be as direct and forceful as his playing style was.

In fairness, he is not buying into the debate over what should happen to Celtic’s manager, Ronny Deila, should a second season of failure in the Champions League qualifying rounds be followed up by an unsuccessful Europa League campaign.

He believes we ought to be patient. However, rooted at the bottom of Group A at the halfway stage following an abject 3-1 defeat in Molde two weeks ago, there is absolutely no question that Celtic must defeat their Norwegian opponents at the second time of asking at Parkhead tomorrow night.

Sutton is BT Sport’s resident Scottish football expert and was working for the channel on that frightful evening in the Aker Stadium. It hurt him to see Celtic torn apart defensively and he believes Deila has to make his team harder to break down and show greater willingness to adapt to games not going his way by ditching his passing philosophy.

“Defensively, Celtic have been found wanting in the last 15 or 16 months in Europe and Ronny has to address that,” he said. “It is a problem that they’ve been so easy for teams to hit on the break.

“Jozo Simunovic came off at the weekend and he would have been concerned about that, but you can’t bring the ball out from the back with some of the players he has.

“Last season, they were so much better because Jason Denayer and Virgil van Dijk could both use the ball. Now, teams can work Celtic out.

“We all have our own ideas and I don’t necessary agree with some of the decisions.

“For example, I thought Kieran Tierney did all right against Fenerbahce.

“If you were being ultra-critical, you could say he could have stopped a couple more crosses, but he had a decent game and I was surprised that he didn’t start in Molde.

“I think Simunovic has to play. He’ll pick Dedryck Boyata and Mikael Lustig, I think.

“That’s what the back four should be and will be. I’m not saying things are easy, but there are things that I don’t understand such as the signing of Tyler Blackett and the fact he hasn’t played.

“In fairness to Ronny, he watches training and sees all the players.

“I just think that when certain players such as Efe Ambrose play and you are trying to play out from the back, we all know what is going to happen. That’s when you have to think about possibly changing the way you play.

“Maybe you have to be more direct, but, if you don’t have that physical type, it’s hard. You just have to find a way.

“It is not unreasonable to expect this Celtic team to turn over Molde.

“Celtic don’t have that physical option and, in Norway, playing into a gale-force wind affected them. With Nadir Ciftci, your passes need to be straight to him.

“He’s not the sort of player you can hit a diagonal ball for and he’ll chase it.

“Celtic can’t continue to play in Europe and concede this amount of goals. It is something that needs to be addressed.”

The Celtic sides which Sutton performed within were renowned for their resilience and will-to-win. These are characteristics he believes Deila’s Class of 2015 must show they possess.

“It’s at the stage where we will find out a lot about the character of this team and the players have to stand up and show courage,” he said. “This is an enormous game. It is a must-win game.

“Personally, I believe it’s a huge plus having James Forrest back. Molde have weaknesses in the full-back positions and James will be looking to exploit them.”

Deila needs to show character, too. Whether he likes it or not, results in Europe must have some bearing on his longer-term prospects.

“Some of the stuff (about Deila) has been a bit premature, but we all know that Celtic need to win the next two games in the group against Molde and Ajax,” said Sutton.

*Watch Celtic v Molde in the UEFA Europa League live and exclusive on BT Sport 2 from 5.30pm on Thursday 5th November. Visit btsport.com for more info.