LEARN FROM LEIGH
Deila believes Ciftci must replicate unlikely mentor Griffiths’ work ethic if Turk is to fit into Parkhead masterplan
LEIGH GRIFFITHS, role model. Not an obvious description for the erstwhile tearaway but Ronny Deila would like his £1.5million reserve Nadir Ciftci to trace the story of Griffiths from bit-part striker to Europa League hitman and learn some lessons.
Deila is acutely aware of the work Griffiths still has to do on vital aspects of his game such as hold-up and link-up play and those issues are reasons why Gordon Strachan is unlikely to draw on his natural scoring art ahead of either Steven Fletcher or Steven Naismith against Poland on Thursday.
But Griffiths does possess the best left foot that Deila has ever worked with and is growing into the position of lone striker. Leaner, yet licking his lips at the glut of chances he can pinch as a penalty-box pest, the 25-year-old has latched on to the specific demands of Deila and his manager loves what he sees from this work in progress.
The quicker the penny drops for Ciftci, the better. Hindered in part by his SFA suspension, the former Dundee United forward has scored only once — in the rout over Dundee a fortnight ago — and Deila suggests there is plenty work to be done before the 23-year-old is ready to compete with or complement Griffiths.
Ciftci (below), who scored six of his 16 goals for United from the penalty spot last season, was left on the bench as Griffiths scored his first Europa League group-stage goal for Celtic in the 2-2 draw with Fenerbahce.
‘You see the job Leigh is doing and we need Nadir to do the same,’ said Deila. ‘Whoever is starting, we need a hardworking player who can threaten in behind and also keep the central defenders busy. And to be a threat every time the ball comes into the box. That’s how a striker has to play.
‘He is capable of doing that but he had a bad start with the suspension and there have been a lot of changes for him in the way we work, the way we are thinking and in his role. So he’s still in a phase where he has to adapt.
‘It’s my job to get him focused in the right way and get him thinking how we want him to think. He has to be a player we need for our system. We are building up a relationship and so everyone has to do their part.
‘Leigh is getting better and better at learning the position. He can still improve at holding the ball up and can be better linking up with midfielders and wingers, but he’s busy. There is something happening around him all the time.
‘Against Hearts, he had five chances on his own. A lot of those chances are because he’s always on the run, always sniffing after chances. And his left foot? I haven’t seen a much better left foot.
‘When you are a manager, you have to pick different types depending on what kind of game you are going to play and, especially in the national team, that’s important. Gordon Strachan knows what he needs in the games.
‘If he needs a threat behind, Leigh is always chasing and working hard, plus he’s a fantastic finisher. If he needs a target man, then it’s different. It has to be up to Gordon but he has a good option now with Leigh.’
Now that prolific domestic marksman Griffiths is adding European goals to his repertoire, he would be advised to keep on scoring. In Deila’s reign, Celtic have played 22 matches in European club competition. The first two were clean sheets against KR Reykjavik. In the 20 games since, 32 have been conceded.
Kicking off with back-to-back 2-2 draws against the glamour clubs of Group A is hardly a destructive start to the campaign but coughing up leads to individual errors and indiscipline have contrived to pin Celtic back behind unlikely section leaders and upcoming double-header opponents Molde. Not that Deila intends to rip up his zonal-marking playbook and start again, despite the set-piece shockers such as that which sent Fernandao on the way to his equalising double at Celtic Park. Far from it. The guilty parties such as Jozo Simunovic’s replacement Efe Ambrose will, instead, be in for intense work on the training ground to drill a defence to take the zonal route to keeping Celtic in Europe after Christmas.
Travelling to Hamilton today on the back of domestic clean sheets against Dundee, Raith and Hearts, Deila said: ‘I think we’ve had a good period where we haven’t conceded in our three previous games.
‘We should have attacked the ball and been in front of it the other night but the delivery was very good and, when it hits that area seven or eight yards in front of goal, it’s very difficult to defend.
‘It’s rare we concede goals that are not from the post to the 18-yard line. Through the whole of last year, we were unbelievable in set-plays. At the start of last season, if it hadn’t been for set-plays then I think I would have had challenges to win games with Celtic.
‘We won so many games on set-plays and we were doing the same things as we are now. But we did them better. We have changes in the team. Virgil (van Dijk), of course, played his part in set-plays offensively and defensively.
‘It’s something we have to do, replace him. Jozo has power, speed, a good spring. Efe is good at that too. Dedryck (Boyata) played very well the other night as well. There’s height in the team but we have to do the job properly.
‘We need to train it every week to improve it. We know the system is working because we’ve done it before. But right now, individually, we aren’t doing it good enough.’
Meanwhile, Deila does not view Carlton Cole as merely a quick-fix signing. The Celtic boss is content to allow the former West Ham striker to recover from the injury suffered in training last week as he seeks a third option in his attack.
‘This is not a player who can come in and be outstanding in the first game,’ said Deila. ‘He needs time to get match fit and then he can be an important player for us.
‘I have faith in Griffiths and Ciftci but I think we should have three strikers. We need to see Carlton get back to the level that he has been before. He’s 31, he can still have two or three, maybe four years, left in his career.’
You see the job that Leigh is doing and we need Nadir to do the same. He is capable