Deila: We lacked tempo and creativity

Ronny Deila was left frustrated by Celtic’s lack of tempo and creativity in the 0-0 draw with Kilmarnock.

The day after being given a wholesome endorsement by Peter Lawwell it all went flat as the hoops failed to penetrate a well drilled Kilmarnock defence.

Gary Mackay-Steven, Nadir Ciftci and Scott Allan were all thrown on in the second half but the visitors defence emerged unscathed leaving Deila frustrated.

“There was a lack of tempo, creativity and timing in the last third of the pitch,” the Celtic boss said. “We didn’t create enough, even though we had chances to win the game.

“We want to win every game and perform well. The boys had a good attitude and really wanted to fight today and they did everything they could but the timing in the last third of the pitch wasn’t good.

“When we talk about the league, we have scored a lot of goals but we didn’t do that today so I was really disappointed about that.

“The positive was that we had a clean sheet and I felt confident we would do that as we were defending well.

“I understand why teams defend like that. It’s hard to beat that, especially when you don’t get the first goal as they get deeper and it gets more difficult.

“That’s when it’s important to keep width in the play and I was disappointed about the last 30 minutes as we started to get everyone in the centre of the pitch so it was easier for them to defend.”