\u201cWe didn\u2019t think he was ready, because he got two matches. But, in the end, it is one match.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cHe didn\u2019t come with us today but he is coming tomorrow now. I am very happy about that, because we need defenders.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0And then someone will ask Ambrose if he’s fit to play, just after he gets off an aeroplane, he’ll say yes, and then Maribor will be one up inside six minutes. We’ve seen that film before.<\/p>\n \u00a0But Deila is a lot more comfortable about tonights tie, now that he’s a bit more familiar with certain aspects of the players, such as remembering their names, and where they play.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we played Legia, I hadn\u2019t been with the players for long, but I feel more comfortable with them now. I know what kind of team I have, I know the strengths of the players now.<\/em> \u201cAlso, the players are looking in much better shape. They are fitter than they were against Legia and have adapted more to working under me. So that puts us in a better position than we had the last time.<\/em> \u201cI think everyone wants to prove Celtic are still a Champions League team. The players really want to get into the group stage.<\/em> \u201cWe have got another chance but I don\u2019t think that puts any extra pressure on us. There is always pressure to get to the Champions League.<\/em> \u201cBut if we don\u2019t make it, it\u2019s because we are not good enough and we\u2019ll have to take it from there. But I think we have improved in the last two weeks. We are more prepared and I have a good feeling that we can make a good performance in Maribor and get a good result to take home to Glasgow.<\/em> \u201cOf course you have to think long term with what you want to do as a manager, but in the short term everything is about a result against Maribor now.<\/em> \u201cWe will focus on the right things. My energy, and the energy of the staff, is that we know what we are going to do. We know the players much better than we did in Warsaw.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Except the new boy, Wakaso Mubarak, but thankfully it looks like he won’t be signed in time, thus removing any temptation to start another qualifier with someone who nobody knows. To be fair to Deila though, he doesn’t look like he’ll make that mistake again. In fact, there was clear evidence that the player is not one of his signings when he mentioned that he’d never spoken to the player before, and wanted a chat, presumably to find out what motivates him, before he does anything…<\/p>\n \u201cHe will be an important player to have in the squad, especially with James being out, Mubarak is a very good deliverer of the ball and also very good both defensively and attacking wise.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI know African players and have had good experiences working with them. Sometimes they come from tough backgrounds where there\u2019s not so much education. You have to adapt to that when you are leading people from those places. The first year or two in Europe can be difficult for them.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThey have the hunger, that\u2019s true. It is important they keep that hunger. Sometimes when they get a bit of success, they can become individualistic. If he gets here in time, I\u2019ll have to speak to him first and see how he is. I\u2019m not a gambler.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0Although he may have been referring to tonights game.<\/p>\n Please, no.<\/p>\n \u00a0James Forrest, who managed nearly a couple of hours this time before getting injured-he pulled up with hamstring problems on Saturday- will miss the game, as will Adam Matthews, who has calf problems. Unlike most Welsh people who have sheep issues.<\/p>\n \u00a0I know, they do that to them, and then we eat them, so who’s really the winner ?<\/p>\n \u00a0Striker ( sort of ) Anthony Stokes summed up the attitude towards the unexpected reprieve in the Celtic camp. ( Surely Lawwell could have put the extra to it and booked a hotel ? )<\/p>\n \u00a0“We have to grasp it with both hands, which we failed to do in the two Legia games.”\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0I’d rather he used his feet, but you get the point. Stokes has yet to impress at this level, and hopefully tonight he can make his mark.<\/p>\n \u00a0“We have ridden our luck, obviously, getting the second chance. But if anything it will be even harder to take if we don’t grasp the opportunity after everything that’s happened.We need to get through to the Group Stages.”\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0Drop the talk about what you will feel like if we lose. Just go out there and win.<\/p>\n Speaking of feelings after a defeat, Deila said after the Legia debacle that he;<\/p>\n \u201c couldn\u2019t sleep much \u2013 I felt like I had killed someone,\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n which is a remarkable coincidence because I couldn’t sleep much because I felt like I wanted to kill someone.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you don\u2019t hurt when you lose matches something\u2019s wrong. It took me one day then I realised I had to move forward. The first day was hard but you have to admit what level you are at. On that day we were at that level and we have to work from there.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cNow we have a chance to see how far we have improved in 14 days. I am confident we are going to reach the right level.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt was a very difficult position to be in. I had only been at the club for four weeks. But you learn quick in this job. I also felt tired because I had maybe pushed myself too much.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI feel very different right now. I know my team, I have my head up and I have control.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em>Oddly enough, I feel a lot more confident about this game than any of the other qualifiers. The team played very well on Saturday, with players working hard and for each other, and goals came from all over the pitch.<\/p>\n There were many, many different reasons why it all went wrong in Warsaw, but the key ones do seem to have been eliminated.<\/p>\n Craig Gordon looks much more focussed than Fraser Forster, the defence looks like they can defend again, and in the middle to front, the high pressing game is becoming more familiar to the players, with more cohesion off the ball.<\/p>\n I’ve always said that you cannot judge how a team is playing unless you are sitting in the stands. Television, only shows you the action through someone elses eyes, and therefore you can only comment on what is on the screen. From the north stand on Saturday, we looked like a good side again. Lets hope we carry that over into tonight, and then we can put this rather shaky start fully behind us.<\/p>\n Personally, I’d go with Craig Gordon in goal, with Lustig and Izaguerre at full back. Denayaar and van Dijk look like they have been playing together for years, so that would complete the back four. With Johansen, Ambrose and Mulgrew protecting the middle of the park, that leaves Commons and Berget to support Leigh Griffiths who has the pace and work ethic to possibly snatch an away goal. Deila will probably go with Stokes instead of Griffiths, but although the Irishman sounds keen to perform well tonight, I’d leave him out for this one.<\/p>\n His inclusion would mean we have no striker in the side to capitalise on any half chances, which could prove vital for the return game. I mean, look at the difference Calum MacGregors goal made in Warsaw.<\/p>\n With regards to MacGregor, he looked tired on Saturday, and while he has done superbly well since he came back from Nottingham, a wee rest will do him good. But I’d still have him on the bench tonight.<\/p>\n Incidentally, perhaps Ronny should be a little more careful when letting people take his photograph… As long as we can see progress, most people will give Deila the time to mould his own team. We saw that progress on Saturday, and if the rate of improvement continues tonight in Slovenia, then we’ll get a result.<\/p>\n This time, hopefully, we won’t need UEFA to alter it for us.<\/p>\n By the way, anyone else hear Peter Lawwell shout ” feckin telt \u00a0yeez ” when he heard that Robert Snodgrass has dislocated his knee, and is out for six months….?<\/p>\n It was Gerry Creaney, Brian O’Neill and Mark McNally in the photo yesterday, taken at a time when things were quite gloomy at Celtic Park.<\/p>\n Heres a happy chappy. From Retro Celt on twitter. Who is he ? Celtic get a second bite at the champions League cherry tonight in Slovenia against Maribor. The game is live on Sky Sports so with any…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/etims.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/maribor-v-celtic.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-1ry","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5552"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5558,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5552\/revisions\/5558"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Celtic](\"http:\/\/files.stv.tv\/imagebase\/304\/623x349\/304299-celtic-manager-ronny-deila-at-glasgow-airport-as-the-club-fly-out-to-face-maribor.jpg\")
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