Got Your Back

Christopher Jullien reflects on a winning competitive Hoops debut, and bonding with his new team-mates on and off the pitch

HAVING anchored the Toulouse backline in a year in which Paris Saint-Germain won the French top flight by 16 points – scoring 105 goals in the process – Christopher Jullien says sitting deep was a central tenet of every opposition defender in Ligue 1. He now joins Scotland’s history-making Treble Treble winners, who, like PSG, often dominate domestic competition.

As a central-defender, playing on the front-foot, manipulating space and instigating attacks from the back poses a new challenge for the 26-year-old centre-half. However, after marking his competitive Hoops debut with a comfortable clean sheet in the return leg of their UEFA Champions League second qualifying round against Nomme Kalju, the Frenchman is raring to go and is up for the task.

“Last year, when I was with my previous team, Toulouse, the style of play was different because, as defenders, we were quite regularly on the back foot, playing deeper as the last line of defence,” said Jullien in an exclusive interview with the Celtic View. “Now, here at Celtic, it appears to be the opposite, but that’s a good thing.

“The fact that Celtic want to be competitive, that they want to win everything and every game, we always want to press high and play attacking football, that cannot be a bad thing and totally suits my style of play.

“That’s good for the team as well, and while it creates a lot of empty space across our backline, we have to be comfortable and confident to use it, both when defending and when moving forward up the pitch.”

Jullien lined up alongside Jozo Simunovic in Estonia, and the two paired well in both defence and attack, and appeared to talk one another through the entirety of the match.