Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers has bemoaned his side’s lack of centre-back options recently.
Rodgers identified Celtic’s need for a centre-back, and quickly made Coetzee his first choice.
However, when the Ajax Cape Town defender’s move fell through due to problem picked up in his medical, Celtic seemed to have no back-up plan.
The Bhoys instead just stuck with their current options, and they have been left short at centre-back this season, as a result.
Celtic were forced to play Mikael Lustig out of position against Bayern Munich, due to a lack of available central defenders, and they were made to pay.
Lustig struggled as Celtic sunk to a 3-0 defeat against the German champions.
And Sutton feels that Celtic made an error by not snapping up a new centre-back during the previous transfer window.
“Where he certainly can be questioned is over the failure to sign a centre-half in the summer to cover Dedryck Boyata and Jozo Simunovic because it has come back to bite him again,” the former Bhoys striker said.
“He says you could not have foreseen what has happened with the injuries, but surely the warnings were there flashing brightly. Boyata has yet to complete a full season in his career. Simunovic had only played in 62 out of 123 matches before Bayern.
“These are constant issues and the problem should have been addressed.
“The manager wanted Rivaldo Coetzee but he failed a medical. However, all his eggs should not have gone into one basket. If they did it was poor planning.”
Celtic are likely to have a centre-back on their wish list in January, with Rodgers bemoaning his current centre backs’ lack of reliability this week.
Despite their problems with naming a settled backline, Celtic still remain unbeaten in domestic action ever since Rodgers took charge.
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