Looking at the team-sheet the Celtic side that beat Dundee yesterday looked very familiar.
Other than Jason Denayer in defence the names all looked familiar, it was a team drawn from the squad that won Neil Lennon’s third title in a row.
Nir Bitton, Leigh Griffiths and Stefan Johansen, all signed in Lennon’s final season have established their place in the side with Kris Commons happily signed up for another two seasons.
Dundee were barely in the match as Celtic pushed and harried them at every turn. The only criticism of the performance was the failure in front of goal with just two goals scored when four or five would have been a fairer reflection on their superiority.
The players were familiar but the style had changed. Pressing, tempo and pace are the watchwords with Deila looking to see his players on the front foot for 90 minutes.
“We’re starting to look like a Ronny Deila team and that makes me happy,” the Celtic boss explained. “I’m very happy with the performance, the team spirit and the energy. We seem very quick and sharp, and I saw that in training last week. We are improving all the time.
“If we needed it, we had another level to go to. Today we won in a very good way, Dundee is not an easy team to beat and they have very good confidence now – they hadn’t lost for five matches and I can see why.
“There is a very good team spirit and we’re having a lot of fun, you can see that on the pitch. People are enjoying running, enjoying chasing. Also, now the offensive side is coming more and more, and that’s the thing we have to work even more on, to get more tempo in the last third of the pitch.”
With six back-to-back wins since the turn of the year, progress in two cup competitions and top spot in the SPFL the season is opening up nicely for the Norwegian.
Winning the next two matches will establish a six point lead over Aberdeen with the same number of games played, the introduction of Stuart Armstrong and Gary Mackay-Steven will bring an extra Deila dimension to the side.
After next Saturday’s visit to St Johnstone an entirely different opponent comes to town with Inter Milan set to test how far Celtic have come- and more importantly how close they are to reaching next season’s Champions League group stage.
