Ronny Deila has slammed his Celtic side’s defending following Saturday’s 2-1 home defeat to Motherwell.

The Bhoys, who are 1.02 to win the Scottish Premier outright, looked slack throughout and despite taking the lead through Nir Bitton, they could not hold on as a brace from Louis Moult gave the Steelmen their first win at Parkhead since 2008.

It means Celtic now sit just a point clear of Aberdeen at the top of the standings heading into Christmas and doubts continue to be raised about the validity of Deila’s reign, having already crashed out of Europe.

Next up for the champions is a trip to the capital to take on Hearts a week on Sunday and the boss certainly knows where he would like them to improve before then.

Celtic were caught out a number of times in defence on Saturday and were punished for their slip-ups.

Marvin Johnson’s pace undid them in the build-up to Moult’s opener, before Jozo Simunovic tripped former Bhoy Scott McDonald to allow the 23-year-old to net the winner from the penalty spot.

After the game, Deila was understandably disappointed and says their poor display at the back meant their defeat was more than justified.

“You have to work really hard defensively and be very compact and we have been that in a lot of games domestically,” Deila told reporters.

“But today we were too open and you give the opponent space to play in and get punished in the end.

“Overall, a disappointing day, a bad day at work and in the end we deserved to lose.”