RONNY Deila today launched a post-mortem into Celtic’s agonising defeat to Malmo in the Champions League play-off in a bid to discover why his side failed to deliver.

Deila believed that his players had looked “scared” and “stressed” during the 2-0 loss to the Swedish champions in the Swedbank Stadium on Tuesday evening.

The disappointing result meant the Glasgow club lost the tie 4-3 on aggregate and missed out on banking over £20 million from the group stages of Europe’s premier club competition.

The Norwegian, whose side will now go into the draw for the group stages of the Europa League in Monaco tomorrow afternoon, is keen to avoid a repeat of the performance in future.

Chief Football Writer Matthew Lindsay, who was in Sweden for the second leg of the play-off, picks over where Celtic went wrong and outlines five ways they can improve in the future.

1 - DITCH ZONAL MARKING

Markus Rosenberg has enjoyed a long and successful career in Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany and Spain as well as with the Swedish national team.

But the talismanic Malmo captain and striker has probably never scored as easy a goal as he did in the first half against Celtic on Tuesday night.

He ghosted into the six yard box unopposed to meet a Yoshimar Yotun corner and diverted the ball past Craig Gordon and into the net.

Age Hareide’s side netted their second goal from a corner kick in the second half – the third time they had done so in two games.

Despite Deila’s contention that his side is solid defensively at set plays, they clearly have a problem defensively when they step up a level.

A combination of zonal marking and man marking could help Celtic avoid a repeat in the Europa League this season.

2 – DROP STEFAN JOHANSEN

The Norwegian internationalist was a deserved recipient of the PFA Scotland Player of the Year last season after helping Celtic win the League Cup and the Premiership and progress to the Europa League knockout rounds.

But he has not picked up where he left off last season. Yes, he provided the assists for the opening two goals in the first leg of the Champions League play-off against Malmo at Parkhead. But he drifted out of the game thereafter.

In Sweden he was absolutely anonymous. How he remained on the field for the full 90 minutes is a mystery. Kris Commons must be aggrieved not to be featuring in big games ahead of him.

The former Scotland internationalist came on for Stuart Armstrong. But he was shunted out to the right wing when he would have done more damage if he had been allowed to operate in his favoured role just behind the striker.

Deila clearly has issues with Commons. He should get over them. When Johansen is struggling like he was on Tuesday evening, he is a far better option.

3 – FIND A RELIABLE LEFT BACK

Many Celtic fans could understand why Deila chose to pick Charlie Mulgrew ahead of Emilio Izaguirre against Malmo on Tuesday night.

The Honduran internationalist is, for all his strengths going forward, often caught out of position at the back in major European games. That was certainly the case in the first leg of the Champions League play-off.

Charlie Mulgrew may not have had as much to offer in attack as his team mate. But it was probably worth drafting the Scotland internationalist in given that the Glasgow club were going to spend long spells on the back foot.

But Mulgrew does far better at centre half – where there may well be a vacancy opening up – in central midfield or on the left side of midfield. He struggled to contain Malmo’s faster and more skilful right-sided players.

Deila needs to consider bringing in a left back who can compete at a high level in Europe before the Europa League gets underway.

4 – TAKE YOUR CHANCES

Celtic could have had this double header tied up in the first half in Glasgow if they had taken all of the opportunities they carved out. Stefan Johansen missed with the scoreline at 2-0.

If he had put that one away his side could very well have found themselves in the draw for the group stages in Monaco today.

Leigh Griffiths did well in that match and justified his selection ahead of his new team mate Nadir Ciftci.

But many others, like Johansen, did not. If a player is unable to put the ball in the back of the net they should be replaced and somebody else given a run.

5 – SPECULATE TO ACCUMULATE

Celtic set out this season to clinch a place in the group stages of the Champions League alongside the likes of Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid this season.

Failure to progress to the competition proper meant that they missed out on a £20 million pay day.

But why should they have joined such exalted company when they failed to invest significantly in the squad?

There can be no denying the Celtic business model is responsible and successful. The Scottish champions have a bank balance which is the envy of clubs of comparable size all around the continent.

They are rarely troubled domestically, especially now that Rangers are no longer in the top flight and are not the force they once were. But in Europe they are often found wanting.

Of course, Malmo progressed to the group stages at the expense of Celtic without spending fortunes. But the Swedish champions are very much the exception to the rule.

Spending more money to bring in some quality players would excite supporters who have stayed away in large numbers due to the absence of a meaningful title race and raise performance levels.

The outlay would be repaid ten fold if a berth among the continent’s elite was secured.

Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here

Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here