He said: “I think he hasn’t played for a little while, but you can still see he’s a good player”. But, the fact that they still lost out to the Norwegian underdogs in the first night of group matches, suggests that they have not settled seamlessly. You have to drag them in the right direction, together, as a manager.
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Celtic host Hearts at Parkhead on Saturday priced as bet365’s heavy 3/10 favourites to pick up the win that they need to keep up the pressure on early league leaders, Aberdeen.
“I don’t think they had a chance in the whole game, apart from maybe at the end when we got the red card, and that wasn’t really a goal chance”.
“You just need to look at history to see how hard it is”, said Deila.
“But that type of player is what we have been looking for”.
Like most of Europe the Celtic boss was surprised by the hefty 3-1 home loss to Molde and while he still has more analysis to do before finalising a gameplan, he is aware of the success his countrymen had through solid defending and playing well on the counterattack. That is only viable if players are willing, and able, to learn from errors and, the onus is on players who have the most experience on this stage.
The champions were especially wasteful in the first-half with Kris Commons, Tom Rogic and top scorer Leigh Griffiths all missing opportunities with James Forrest’s drive which hit the inside of the post the closest thing to a goal.
While Aberdeen were toiling to a second successive defeat in the Highlands, after starting the season with eight straight wins, they at least had the back-handed compliment of finding every plot twist of their struggle there discussed in the Celtic Park stands.
In the 32nd minute the busy former Rangers keeper thwarted Griffiths again before saving Bitton’s long-range effort as the Hoops fans wondered if it was going to be one of those days.
“I don’t need to persuade anybody about this”.
But the striker, who had netted in six consecutive league matches going into the game, fluffed a number of opportunities in an exasperating afternoon. What am I actually doing?
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Oshaniwa said he was excited to have played against his Super Eagles teammate Efe Ambrose in the encounter. The movement in the box was not good enough.
