RONNY Deila last night insisted Efe Ambrose has improved as a player in the last year despite his mistakes costing Celtic victory in their Europa League match with Fenerbahce.
And the Norwegian stressed the Nigerian centre half still retains his confidence and the support of his team mates in the wake of the 2-2 draw in the Group A match at Parkhead on Thursday night.
The Scottish champions had led their Turkish opponents, who had fielded Nani, Raul Meireles and Robin van Persie in their starting line-up, 2-0 after first half goals from Leigh Griffiths and Kris Commons.
However, Ambrose, whose career at Celtic has been blighted by errors in high-profile games and who was only in the side due to injuries to Charlie Mulgrew and new signing Jozo Simunovic, gifted Fernandao two goals on either side of half-time.
But asked if the 26-year-old still had his backing, Deila said: “Yes, he is in my squad and he has played a lot of games under me. If I see people develop, they have my confidence. But if they make the same mistakes over and over again, then we have issues.
“With Efe - and I say this all the time to him - his biggest task is concentration, One year ago he was making more mistakes than he does now. He is much calmer on the ball and he doesn’t take so many risks with the ball. But still he has issues with easy mistakes that we have to get sorted.
“He is very experienced in that matter. He has made mistakes before and he is an experienced boy who has been to big games and to the World Cup. I am not afraid of playing him. He knows he is in progress and he feels good because he knows he has played well over time.
“He was very sorry about the mistake on Thursday, but every player makes mistakes. He needs to move on from it, learn from it and follow up the progress he has been making because 98 percent of his game on Thursday was very good.”
Deila added: “Off the pitch he is a very good person to have in the squad. He always works 100 percent in training. He always stands behind the team and supports the team and that is very important.
“He knows what he has to work on and he enjoys working and seeing the improvement. Now he is very disappointed but he will get over it and move on.
“If the players see him getting better, then there is no issue with trust. But if they see him doing the same thing again and again then everyone has an issue. He made a big mistake on Thursday and it has been a while since he did a thing like that, so that’s a positive.”
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