John Hartson: ‘Kris Commons must play more for Celtic’

The former Celtic midfielder said: “I was very happy”.

“That’s what brings back the confidence”. “Maybe we could have got all three points but we were down to 10 men at the end of the game, so a draw was okay”, he reasoned.

“He made it look so easy, his cute ball for Bitton played with the flawless weight”. Overall, very pleased. Okay we lost the game last week but a few weeks ago we were playing terrific (football).

“We got a point, it could have been three but we had a good performance and that gives us a lot of energy and confidence”.

Kris Commons was back in the side against the Dutch and although he was deployed in a wide right position, I thought he managed to exert a considerable influence on the game.

In an absorbing encounter, right-back Mikael Lustig headed the Parkhead men into an interval lead in the 42nd minute after Danish midfielder Viktor Fischer had cancelled out midfielder Nir Bitton’s eighth-minute opener.

“Everyone knows he missed the pre-season with his (toe) injury”. It has been a tough month for Deila but all you can do in that situation is to maintain your own beliefs and ensure that you impart that assurance in your ideas to your players.

“But you can see now he is getting his sharpness and his touch is back”.

“In and around the opponent’s box there’s nobody more unsafe. We know what Kris can do when he is fit”.

Deila added: “It was a very hard decision to think if I had to take him off. I think he had very good control of El Ghazi in the first half”.

I suspect there is a feeling that they know themselves how badly they let themselves down that night because had they played the way they can then Celtic would have been in Europe’s premier competition.

“We didn’t do what he wanted so he describes it as parking the bus”. We created chances and defended as a team and I am very proud of the boys.