RONNY DEILA reckons Celtic played “fantastic football” in their 2-0 win over Partick Thistle at Firhill.
But the Norwegian believes his players can still do better and they are improving all the time.
He watched Tom Rogic and Kris Commons score the important goals for a second successive 2-0 SPFL win and said: “It was an important match and the first 35 minutes were maybe the best we’ve done so far this season.
“We played fantastic football and defensively they only had two passes in the team.
“Then we got a little bit sloppy and a bit tired, some of the players such as Tom Rogic haven’t played for a long time and he felt it at the end of the first-half because we pressed very hard.
“So, there are always things you can improve on, but we kept a clean sheet.
“I think we’re improving all the time and I love working with the boys here. We always want to get better and the first 35 minutes was good rhythm, timing in what we did and we opened them up a lot.
“If we can continue doing that in longer spells it’s going to be hard to beat us.
“I’m pleased with the performance and three points and I’m looking forward to playing Kilmarnock on Wednesday.”
One of the most pleasing aspects of today’s victory was the reintroduction of Rogic to the starting line-up for the first time since September 2013.
The Hoops boss said: “Tom was very good in the first 40 minutes. You can see what kind of talent he is with his touch of the ball, awareness, scanning and understanding so there are a lot of things he can give to the team. I think we’ll see much more of him.
“I told him I hadn’t seen him so much and when I came here I didn’t hear anything about him, so I didn’t know who he was because he was injured the whole time.
“He had one year out with injury almost and when we got him starting again I saw he had something special with his touch, understanding and that he is a very good football player.
“I told him he’d never leave this club before getting a real chance and now he shows that he deserves that chance and he’s also a very good professional.
“He wants to develop all the time and he’s not satisfied to sit on the bench, so he has a lot to give to us.
“Everybody gets a chance and they have every day to show themselves. I’m after improvement – people who want to get better, learn and have ambitions.”
Deila confirmed that skipper Scott Brown was rested to allow stiffness in his hamstring to subside and could return at the weekend alongside Stuart Armstrong, who came off after 20 minutes with a groin problem.
James Forrest, too, has a chance of returning after being rested this afternoon.
