Ronny Deila said Celtic’s second-choice goalkeeper Lukasz Zaluska was left shaken by a street attack in Glasgow in the early hours of Monday but the manager will have no problem including the Pole in his squad for Thursday’s Europa League visit of Astra Giurgiu.
Police are investigating an assault on Zaluska that left the 32-year-old with facial injuries. He had been on a night out in the city’s Ashton Lane with his partner, a matter Deila has no issue with.
“Hhe was a bit scared about this but everything is good now,” Deila said. “He has trained well the last couple of days, so is ready. I talked to him about what happened. It is a police case now, I hope they can make it right and we just have to wait and see. He hasn’t done anything wrong from our perspective. We just have to support him and feel sorry for him because that is a hard thing to go through.
“It is not a problem if they want to go out for dinner and do something social. Of course that is OK. He hasn’t done anything wrong. He was out for dinner and that is perfectly right. That’s why you get frightened about this, it’s not fun to experience things like that and we have to take care of him.”
The Zaluska situation has dominated the buildup to what is a significant fixture for Deila. Saturday’s 5-0 win at Ross County arrived before a sequence of four home matches in succession; the Norwegian has thus far been unable to achieve winning momentum since succeeding Neil Lennon in the summer.
“What I have experienced here is that you have to take one game at a time, you need to focus on one and give that all your energy,” Deila explained. “We did that well against Ross County, we were mentally ready and we just went out, and had won the game after 30 minutes.
“That has to give the boys confidence and that’s what we want on the pitch tomorrow as well; get out, get good control of the game and get the tempo up and try to finish as quick as possible. I want more than four [wins]. I want to have 10. The goals are very clear and that’s what we’re fighting for.”
Celtic will be unable to call on their in-form Manchester City loanee John Guidetti against the Romanian club, as he is ineligible to play.
One notable aspect of Deila’s tenure has been the promotion of Jim McGuinness. The former – and All Ireland-winning – Donegal Gaelic football manager worked in a psychology capacity only with Celtic’s youth players when Lennon was in office but has now taken on a full-time role with the main squad.
“I want a team around me with different qualities and Jim is very good with team spirit and psychology, to get coaching people to get the right mentality and be aware of what they want to do and how you can achieve things,” Deila said.
“He knows what teamwork is. He knows sports and dressing rooms. That’s positive. I have always had people in that role and they had nothing to do with football, they are just people who could go into the brains of the players and think how to get togetherness, and to get people aware of what they are doing. Jim has skills that we can use.”
