Mowbray has used 27 players in his first three months in charge and made a total of 24 changes to his starting line-up in the past seven matches, only two of which Celtic won.

Collins admits the situation is far from ideal but he insists every other boss would do the same in their formative months in charge.

"Any new manager that goes to a new club has got to assess all of his players, try them in different positions and combinations," the former Scotland player said.

"So it's only natural that he has been doing that. There is no manager going to come into a new team and pick 11 players and stick with them.

"Tony is only doing what any other manager anywhere in the world would do - trying out every player before he makes decisions come January and the end of the season on who he wants to keep and who he wants to move on.

"It's never an ideal situation when you are chopping and changing, you don't get a lot of continuity. But when you go to a new club, that's what you have got to do."

It appears a large proportion of those players still need to convince Mowbray they should stay at the club.

The Celtic manager questioned the quality of his squad following the recent 1-0 home defeat by Hamburg, which left the Hoops adrift at the bottom of their Europa League section.

The former West Brom manager indicated there would be movement in the squad in January but Collins was not surprised by his comments.

"I think he was stating the obvious to anyone that watched the match," said Collins, who was at Hampden today to promote ESPN's live coverage of the return match in Germany on Thursday evening.

"I don't think he was criticising his players. He was stating a fact on that given night.

"You could tell that the Hamburg players technically had a better touch and were sharper looking.

"It's a little period Celtic are going through where the confidence is a little bit down. Forwards are missing chances, they are conceding goals.

"Confidence is an amazing thing in football, all of a sudden goals start going in and players start looking sharper, their touch gets better."

Collins believes Celtic, boosted by a convincing 3-0 win over Kilmarnock on Saturday, can hit peak form in the coming weeks.

And he doubts whether Mowbray will be able to radically overhaul his squad in the next transfer window.

"Tony has said he would like to bring in reinforcements in January but it's never an easy time to bring in players," the former Hibernian manager said.

"Most clubs, if they have got a player playing well, won't want to sell him in January.

"More often than not the players who become available in January are those that are not regulars at that present time."

Mowbray's most pressing task is to reignite Celtic's European challenge after picking up just one point from games against Hapoel Tel Aviv, Rapid Vienna and Hamburg.

Celtic are five points off the top two and could see their qualification hopes vanish if they lose in Germany.

"The chances are pretty slim," Collins said. "They have to get a result at Hamburg.

"But if they can get a result there, then they are more than capable of winning the final two games."