AFTER 25 competitive games and one AGM in his five months in charge of Celtic, Ronny Deila finds that he is still trying to get some basic messages across.

Until he does, the transition he is overseeing will continue to prove to be stick.

Sure, recording a fifth league win in a row to remain top of the Premiership is proof that improvement is being made.

But the manner of this 2-1 victory over Dundee - the side which exposed so many of their shortcomings when they held them to a draw at Dens Park in August - highlights the fact this Celtic team remains very much a work in progress.

Whether it is yet ready to meet the challenge of beating Red Bull Salzburg and claim the points required to qualify for the last 32 of the Europa League will become clear when the Group D leaders come to Parkhead on Thursday.

What is already obvious is that consistency continues to be the Hoops' Achilles' heel, both from match to match and during the 90 minutes.

For periods, everything can click at the back, in the middle and up front.

However, it does not take much for the confidence and the cohesion to disappear, as it did on Saturday.

Salzburg's spies would have spotted that when put on the back foot, as they were by Paul Hartley's well-drilled outfit, seriously worrying flaws appeared in the Celtic ranks, exposing a vulnerability which would be more ruthlessly exploited by a team with better finishers - which the Austrian champions have.

The loss of Jason Denayer with an ankle injury at half-time meant that Efe Ambrose returned to the team for the first time since the defeat to Hamilton eight games earlier.

With Mikael Lustig already out for at least three weeks with a hamstring injury picked up on international duty with Sweden, the stability which had been building in Celtic's back four was being unpicked bit by bit.

And the enforced absence through suspension of captain Scott Brown meant access to the Hoops' defence was already easier for a Dundee side which showed no lack of conviction or confidence.

A clutch of decent scoring opportunities were spurned by the visitors, the first by Greg Stewart after only 50 seconds.

They did finally get the ball past Craig Gordon in the 58th minute with a scrappy affair finished off by David Clarkson to give him his seventh goal in the last seven games.

By then Celtic were two ahead through a headed goal moments before the break from Anthony Stokes and another by super Swede John Guidetti, who put the seal on a wonderful move conjured up by James Forrest and Adam Matthews.

That was the good. The bad was how nervous the team and support became in the closing stages of a match they should have been able to see out without too much stress.

If that's what happens when the Hoops come under a little pressure in a mid-season league match, what can we expect if a similar scenario manifests itself in Thursday's crunch Euro tie or when they go to Tynecastle on Scottish Cup duty this weekend?

DEILA is acutely aware of the danger signs and made no attempt to camouflage the possible consequences.

He has plenty of examples to focus on, including the recent Europa League tie in Giurgiu when his side had one foot in the door to the knockout stages but could not hold on to their 1-0 lead and finished up in a scrap for a single point.

The manager has a positive answer to what could be a seriously damaging problem. But he clearly still has some work to do to convince his players this is the solution.

"When we find ourselves in the lead, as we did against Astra and against Dundee, we just have to go for it," insisted Deila as he outlined a plan which would surely meet with unanimous approval from a support which is crying out for something to cheer.

"When we get one, we have to go for two. When we get two, we have to push for a third. That's the mentality I want to get into the team.

"We just have to work on that, and we we will."

Warming to the theme, Deila expanded: "It's about what we do when we score. We have to just think automatically, 'Now we go,' and take a step forward rather than back.

"We have had good games in which we have done that, but we need to show more consistency in this."

The Norwegian is fighting against a culture and a history, however, because, in the past, going 2-0 up at Celtic Park meant the game was over.

So, as much as Deila needs to instil his own go-for-more mentality, he has to remove the old that'll-be-enough mindset.

"I understand this," the manager concurred. "We are here to entertain and we need to go for it for 90 minutes.

"When we go on to the pitch, we have to be ready for that. But I also know it is tough to play so many matches in such a short period of time.

"The players have also been travelling a lot, both for the European games and, for many of them, for internationals.

"They are coming back here one day then going straight into another game the next. So I was happy to get the win against Dundee to keep us on top of the league."

As ever, though, for Deila the perfectionist his focus on Saturday was not solely on taking the points.

He insists on looking beyond the scoreline, knowing that such top-line success can mask many deeper-lying issues.

THE return to action of Kris Commons was a bonus, even if he did look like a player who had been out for two months, which he was.

Forrest is also inching back to something like his most effective form.

But, overall, this was not the confidence-boosting display that Deila or anyone else in the team wanted ahead of this Thursday's big match, which will see Guidetti reduced again to the role of spectator. "It was a poor performance," admitted the Celtic gaffer, who was then happy to go into detail about the reasons for it.

"In the first half we didn't press together. Dundee had the ball too much and we didn't create many chances.

"When we have the ball, we need to push forward more.

"And there were too many sideways and backward passes. I hate passes like that.

"We won and that is the only positive thing. But the team's performance will have to be much better on Thursday."