THAT Saturday’s fare against Kilmarnock brought more questions than answers for Ronny Deila will be a source of some consternation to the Celtic boss.

The Hoops have three days to prepare for the visit of Ajax at Celtic Park, a game in which their entire European campaign hangs on. Failure to beat the Dutch will see Celtic’s final game against Fenerbahce in Instanbul as a dead rubber, while a victory would at least keep the campaign alive going into the final encounter.

Yet, the irony about Saturday’s game against Kilmarnock was the it did not so much as shine a light on those defensive areas that have so troubled Celtic in Europe this season – although a couple of late break-aways from the Ayrshire side could have made the afternoon considerably worse for Celtic – but rather that there was an utter dearth of creativity throughout the Parkhead side.

James Forrest started the game brightly and looked lively on the flanks but it was an energy that abated as the game wore on. Leigh Griffiths, 18 goals to the good this season so far, had a couple of chances, one of which brought out a decent save from Jamie MacDonald from a free-kick just after the break, but as the minutes of the game ticked by it looked increasingly likely that Celtic’s frustration would get the better of them.

The game seemed to fizzle out and while Deila is right to insist that the game against Ajax on Thursday is an entirely different proposition altogether, the weekend stalemate highlighted deficiencies that have not been so obviously apparent this season for Celtic.

Kris Commons is currently recuperating from a thigh strain that he sustained in the wretched game against Molde at Celtic Park and his chances of getting any game time under his belt before the critical game against Ajax were hindered by the added complication of a vomiting bug at the end of last week.

On the evidence of Saturday, getting him out of the treatment room and onto the park will be high on the agenda this week. Deila insisted that Tuesday would be the day to further look at the case of Commons and there is no question that the versatile midfielder is one of the few within the Celtic dressing room who can make things happen.

The worry about the game against Kilmarnock was just how unlikely a goal looked like coming. Dedryck Boyata thought he had broken the deadlock as the game drew to a close only for MacDonald to tip the effort onto the crossbar, but in truth there were very few clear cut chances.

Kilmarnock were step up to protect their goalkeeper with bodies strung across the pitch but as frustrating as that might for Celtic to play against, they ought to have the nuance to get beyond that.

The pedestrian pace and lack of any penetration is something that will be addressed this week but Deila admitted that it was a difficult 90 minutes for him to ensure.

The Norwegian was unusually animated on the touchline throughout Saturday’s game, remonstrating at one stage with the fourth official about a penalty kick that he felt was due to his men after Scott Brown had been fouled.

“It was very frustrating,” he said afterwards. “We had 70 per cent possession but there was a lack of tempo, creativity and timing in the last third of the pitch. We didn’t create enough even though we had chances and should have won the game.”

Kieran Tierney did not feature and it remains to be seen whether he is recalled for Thursday night. Deila explained that the youngster had been off on international duty and he is wary of burning the 18-year-old out.

“This time last year he couldn’t manager a full game without getting cramps so we need to be careful with him and we need to build him up,” said Deila.”

One of the few positives to come out of the game was the performance of Jozo Simunovic. The Croatian defender has had a stop-start time at the club because of various injury problems but getting a full 90 minutes under his belt should mean that he is ready for Thursday.

Simunovic had a couple of decent interventions, most notably in the latter stages of Saturday’s game, and he does look as though he has the ability to offer the Celtic defence the solidity that they have lacked since the loss of Jason Denayer and Virgil van Dijk.

Ajax prepared for the game with a 5-1 mauling of Cambuur which maintains their four-point cushion at the top of the Dutch league.

Frank de Boer’s side have won 11 of their 13 league games this season and will feel confident ahead of the game in Glasgow this week.

While Celtic have earned pass-marks for their forward play in the Europa League – the Hoops have the second highest goals for in Group A – their problem has been an inability to protect any kind of lead.

In that respect, Deila was understandably enthused by the performance of Simunovic.

“We had a clean sheet and I felt safe about that because of good defending,” said the Celtic manager. "I was very pleased with Jozo. He had a very good match and that was a positive, so there is always some positive in the negative, but the end result was not good enough."

Saturday will be forgotten if he can mastermind a win on Thursday night.