Leigh Griffiths is on the bench today with Nadar Ciftci leading the line against Partick Thistle today.
Griffiths has been out of action for a month but has been declared fit to take a place on the bench, which also includes Carlton Cole, as Celtic look to go three points ahead of Aberdeen at the top of the Premiership.
Looking ahead to the match Ronny Deila said: “It’s a new year and we have so much to play for this season. I’m excited and I’m looking forward to the game. I saw a lot of positive things against Hearts that I want to see more of and there was very good energy in the whole team.
“That gives me a good feeling ahead of the game on Saturday. In 2016 I want to win everything in Scotland, play Champions League, move the club forward and develop the players. These are high, tough goals but you need to have them if you want to succeed.”
The Celtic boss added: “We always have to evaluate everything we have done and look forward to improve and look forward to playing games and enjoy winning when you’re winning. That’s very important in football.
“Sometimes it’s being better defensively, sometimes it’s that we don’t create chances. That’s how it is to be a manager and to be a leader you have to see the trends and see what we have to improve.
“Right now it’s small details in attacking play. We need to be more direct and have more runs behind the defence to open things up. We did that better against Hearts so that’s something we have to continue doing.
“Defensively we need to press good as a team and get back the reactions when we lose the ball. That was also a big step forward against Hearts so it’s small details that can make things right and if we do it we’re hard to play against.”
CELTIC: Gordon; Lustig, Ambrose, Simunovic, Tierney; Johansen, Bitton; Commons, Rogic, McGregor; Ciftci
SUBS: Bailly, Izaguirre, Griffiths, Mackay-Steven, Allan, Cole, Forrest
If today’s fiasco is not a big enough wake-up call on our dire need for a competent manager, we are in serious danger of sliding even further back than we already have.
We have gone backwards almost 60 years under Deila. The SFA new boys are coming next year whether we like it or not and we are not prepared. Sevco are going to get full backing from the powers that be and we are not ready! We should be out of sight, but we are not!
If we don’t get a manager now we will maybe not win the league this year, and certainly not next season! We will also continue to embarrass ourselve in Europe, losing millions in the process, and all to save one or two by hiring a joke of a manager to begin with. The fans staying home are sending a message! We do not like the product on show! Get a manager now! Or risk bigger embarrassment.
When taking my seat looking down at officials thought Bobby Madden was there, then discovered it was a sraehole called Stephen Finnie who`s a clown sorry CLONE of Madman, yes and referee`s just like him, there were tackle`s with straight legs no fouls or words of warning, sorry they were at Celtic players for protesting, at least 2 pens overlooked.
I wonder if BBC will show them this evening, but on the other hand that was robbery no other way absolute shit, I fear nxt weekends game down at Stranraer our players better be ready for a culture shock at the surroundings, it’s like playing in public park (it is) welcome to real life football against working boys playing football for the love of it, so Rony & Johns its time you worked for your money.
Face up to the fans love of all that is CELTIC FC, or its all over
We are now two matches into a four match run against the 6th, 7th, 31st and 12th placed teams in the league (before this weekend’s matches). We barely managed to win one, with the other postponed. Stanraer probably think they are in with a shout, the same way we used to against the likes of Barcelona and Milan.