Ronny Deila admitted Celtic produced a below-par performance yesterday against Dundee, despite claiming all three points to stay top of the table. The Hoops made it five wins on the spin in the league against the Dens Park side thanks to goals in either half from Tony Stokes and John Guidetti – his 10th of the season. But they were made to work hard for the victory in Paradise, with the visitors coming close on several occasions before David Clarkson reduced the deficit just before the hour mark. While the Hoops held on to extend their unbeaten run to eight games, it was a display that disappointed the manager. There were positives from the match, most notably James Forrest’s impressive showing on only his second start since a long-term injury lay-off. But the Norwegian will be demanding an improved showing from his players in Thursday’s vital UEFA Europa Legaue clash against FC Sazlburg. “It was a poor performance,” he said. “I expected more but what I will take with me from this game, while the second goal we scored was fantastic. “Jamesy is looking sharper now. We just have to keep him consistent and away from injuries and then we will have a very good player and a very important one. “Negatively, we didn’t press together and weren’t compact enough. We dropped too much into defence, stayed too high with the wingers and didn’t run enough with their front four, so there was too much space for Stefan Johansen and Charlie Mulgrew to cover. “At the beginning of the second half we were better and we got to 2-0 with a good goal. But, again we dropped back instead of going at them and getting three or four, and we conceded a stupid goal. “They got energy and we got a little bit frightened, but it was good we took three points away from the game but we have to learn from this and get up to another level on Thursday. “We need good performances all the time to win games and against Dundee we had spells of good play, but we need more of that and I expect that to come on Thursday. “It’s more about mentality,” he continued. “When we go 2-0 up we should just attack them and go for three and four, so we need to work on that. It should give us energy to push on and, of course, I have talked to the players about that.” “It’s always hard after European games or international games, as you don’t train so much together and you go straight in. This could be a factor but we have to get our best performance as possible in the next game.” Jason Denayer could be a doubt for the visit of the Austrian champions, after a knock picked up near the end of the first half saw him stay in the dressing room at the break. “They are going to do a scan but I don’t think it’s more than a hard tackle,” said the manager. “There was no twisting and we will check he hasn’t broken his leg. He should be okay, if it’s not broken.”
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 11:18:16 +0000
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