JOHN COLLINS last night insisted Celtic will never set up defensively for any European game as long as Ronny Deila is manager.

That's despite the team conceding so many goals in the Europa League campaign and Champions League play-off tie with Malmo this season.

The Parkhead No2 was adamant that Celtic fans would never have to watch their team sit deep and flood the midfield no matter who the opposition were, and rather they would always attempt to attack and win the game.

Asked whether his side had been too open so far in their European matches, a defiant Collins said: "So would you like us to be five at the back, four in midfield, one up front, get the keeper to roll it to the edge of his box, kick it up the pitch, defend and try and get a counter attack?

"It is maybe the way to get a 1-0 result. A lot of people might be happy. But it is not the way we want to try and develop the team and the style of football.”

When it was put to Collins that to many winning is more important than how the teams played, he said: "Ultimately you are always judged on your results in the long term.

"But along the way you would like to think you’ll be judged on the performances."

Asked if he would sacrifice style for results, he added: "I won’t.”

Collins and Deila do share a philosophy about how football should be played.

And while teams from bigger clubs are often to be found changing their style certainly away from home in European competition. this not something the Celtic coaching staff would entertain.

Collins said: "You can sit back and play 4-5-1, everybody back and not care about dominating possession, hope you scrape a result.

"Some people might want that, might think that’s the way forward. "But we don’t think that’s the way forward.

"We think the way forward is to try to play football, try to control the game, pass the ball through midfield and try to be creative.

"The risk that comes with that is you get caught and the opposition score goals against you.

"I don’t think there is any game where we’ve been under 25 minutes of total pressure, our goal has been peppered and our goalkeeper has been making save after save.

"We’ve not stolen any victories. So there are positives in there, if you want to look for them.

"We’re having a lot of possession in European football, we’re creating a lot of chances in football, playing the game the right way and developing players, developing a team.

"But the negative, as you will remind us every week, is we’re conceding goals. And, when you concede soft goals, it makes it hard.

"We know we’ve got to get better, so that’s what we’re working on every day on the training pitch."

Collins, not surprisingly, believes much of the criticism aimed at Deila following the back-to-back defeats of Molde has been out of order.

He said: "Well I think it’s unfair, of course, because when he gets criticised, I get criticised – because we’re a team.

"But we understand the expectations from everybody, that we have to do well in Europe, win every game in Scotland, score five goals ever week and concede none.

"So we take the criticism, try to turn it into a positive and drive us forward.

"We know we’ve had some disappointing results in Europe, but we’ve had some fantastic phases in games, most notably at home.

"Away at Ajax, too, we played very well. Anyone who watched the game would have seen a team who are comfortable with the ball, a team who defended fairly well until the end of the game, when they came at us against ten men."

Collins, however, did admit that his team have performed poorly at the back, which has costs them points in games they should have won.

He said: "Fenerbahce are a team who have spent a lot of money, brought in big players, and yet when they came to Celtic Park and we were unbelievably good at the start of the game, only to concede a couple of poor goals.

‘We know we’ve got to get rid of that fault."