Mark Wilson, the former Celtic defender, believes that Ronny Deila was right to voice his concern that his players were afraid in Malmo as the club failed to qualify for the group stages of the UEFA Champions League.
Deila’s observations were refuted by senior Celtic players prompting the Norwegian to offer a retraction with an explanation that there had been some mixed wires on the communication front given that English is a second language for him.
It was, however, an inhibited performance by a limp Celtic side and Wilson has recalled that he remembers a similar criticism levelled at him for the current Scotland manager, Gordon Strachan, following a 0-0 draw with Celtic and AC Milan in February 2007 as the Parkhead side competed in the knockout stages of the Champions League.
The difference was that Strachan’s criticism was private as opposed to the public comments of Deila. Wilson, though, believes that players have to take responsibility when performances have fallen below par.
“He [Strachan] didn’t say it to the full team, just to a few individuals and I was one of them, that he thought we played scared football,” said Wilson. “It gnawed away at me for two days so I asked him in training a few days later, ‘what does that mean?’ and he said ‘look, I am not getting on to you, I thought you did OK , but you didn’t pass the ball like you would in a regular game out here, you weren’t playing with confidence, you took the easy option rather than take on things that were more difficult’ and that helped me understand it.
“Looking back on the game, he was totally right. I was part of a back four that didn’t concede and kept a clean sheet. I thought I had done my job but Gordon didn’t think so. When you are at Celtic Park, it doesn’t matter who you are playing against, you have got to attack as a full-back and be positive and I perhaps thought my job was more defensive. He told me, I looked at the game and he was totally right.
"I am sure Gordon would not have been scared to come out publicly and say the same thing. Ronny Deila said what he said but I am sure when the players look back they will be the first to say it wasn't their best performance. When the players look back on the Malmo game they will know their performance wasn't good enough. They can only hold their hands up and say that they weren't scared as Kris Commons and Scott Brown stated but that they were no means good enough on the night.”
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