RONNY Deila will ignore calls to field his exciting attacking triumvirate of Scott Allan, Ryan Christie and Patrick Roberts from kick-off as Celtic bid to land a Premiership and Scottish Cup double.
Allan, Christie and Roberts all came off the bench in the Premiership game against Inverness Caledonian Thistle at Parkhead last Saturday and performed encouragingly as Deila’s side ran out 3-0 winners.
However, the Norwegian, whose charges take on Hamilton in a league game at New Douglas Park this evening, revealed he is unprepared to break up a side which has won its last three games without conceding a goal.
"They're closer because they played very well when they came on,” he said. “That's the way to do it - show in training and in matches that they want to be part of the team.
"But it's stupid to change the whole team when we're building up momentum. But it's good for me to know we have players on the bench coming on.
“There are others who didn't come on at the weekend who can also do good things. We are a team and we have three games in nine days.”
Meanwhile, Deila has insisted that Carlton Cole still has a future at Celtic - despite the former England striker not playing since coming on as a substitute in the 8-1 win over Hamilton at Parkhead over a month ago.
The Scottish champions brought in Colin Kazim-Richards, the Turkish forward who was suspended by Feyenoord earlier this season for threatening a journalist, at the end of the January transfer window and Cole hasn’t played since.
But Deila stressed the 32-year-old, who has signed a contract that keeps him at Parkhead until the end of next season, has been struggling to overcome a knee problem and is still in his plans.
“He's had some small issues with his knee, but he's solved that so he can train more consistently as well,” he said. “He's improving and that's positive. But he still has a bit to go in my opinion.
“But he is training. There is hard competition for him as well. Right now, he has not been featuring in our squad. We will see if he can get a new step and fight himself into the team.”
Asked about speculation that Cole would move on in the summer, Deila said: "That's news to me. It's hard to say. All these things come into consideration all the time. He's in our squad, he wants to play here and we want to get the best out of him.”
Meanwhile, Deila has stressed that his side can’t expect to win to trounce Hamilton, who they hammered 8-1 at Parkhead last month, once again when they play them on the artificial pitch at New Douglas Park tonight.
The 40-year-old believed the Scottish champions were lucky to pick up all three points on the last occasion they played Hamilton away back in October and will have to perform better on this occasion to prevail.
“The last time we were there it was 2-1 and we were a little bit lucky in my opinion,” he said. “We need a totally different performance than we did the last time.
“We want to produce more and play at a better tempo. They've been defending better since they lost heavily against us. They can also hit us on the counter-attack or a set-play, so we have to be switched on.”
Elsewhere, Deila has predicted Gary Mackay-Steven can feature for Scotland in one of the friendlies against either the Czech Republic of Denmark next month if he continues to perform at a high level for Celtic.
"He should be pushing for that,” he said. “I don't have control over every player, but he's played well over the last month but he has to do it consistently. If he's going to be in or not, but everybody who plays for Celtic should be close to the national team."
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