After a prolonged pre-season and demanding Champions League qualifiers Ronny Deila finally got a taste of home on Saturday as Celtic met Dundee United in a delayed flag day.
Jackie McNamara’s side looked good value going into the match after beating Aberdeen and Motherwll but were swept away by the buoyant home side.
Loan bhoy Jason Denayer got the first goal of the game in the fourth minute with the hoops 5-0 up before the hour mark as the fans warmed to an eye-catching aggresive style of play.
The attacking players looked as if they had bought into the ways of their new manager with sole striker Anthony Stokes heavily involved but only managing one goal despite the claims of Charlie Mulgrew.
Wednesday night’s trip to Maribor will reveal a lot more about how quickly Deila and Celtic are adapting but the signs on Saturday suggested that progress is being made.
“I felt comfortable and prepared so it was a very good day,” Deila said afterwards. “I am into performances and today was a very good performance.
“For 60 minutes it was very good with pressing and transition, the passing was much better and we created a lot of things.
“When we have good performances, we know we have the best players in this league and we showed today that we are a very good team but we need to go 90 minutes instead of 60 and we have to work on that as well.
“In the last 10 or 15 minutes we were a little bit sleepy but I can understand it.”
If Celtic can turn on the style for 60 minutes on Wednesday against Maribor it’s unlikely that Deila will have too many complaints as he flies back from Slovenia.
