CELTIC’S new right back Jerry Toljan has been talking about his first impressions of playing for the Scottish Champions and the his thrill at sampling Celtic Park on match-day in the 2-0 win over Hibs on Wednesday night.
The full-back – who can also play at left back, so with Emilio struggling he may play down that flank on Sunday against St Johnstone, this time in the Scottish Cup – reckons that the Celtic style of play is very similar to that of his parent club Borussia Dortmund, who are enjoying an impressive campaign in the Bundesliga.
“We have been doing a good job in defence and we’ve been defending counter-attacks very well.
“If you do well in attack and score a lot, it’s hard for the opponent to score against you,” Jerry noted in his media interview.
“I hope we can keep doing this and avoid losing too many goals.
“The way we are at Celtic is quite similar to Dortmund. In Germany, we had the ball most of the time and tried to attack and score goals.
“Celtic is the same, so it’s no big deal for me.
“It was exciting to play at Celtic Park. I’ve been looking forward to it and it was good to experience it. I’ve heard a lot about the atmosphere being crazy and I enjoyed it a lot.
“It’s always important to win and it’s just as good, as a defender, to have a clean sheet. Hopefully we can keep that going in the next week because we have two big matches.
“It’s been an exciting few days since I arrived, but this is a nice team and they have accepted me right away.
“I have settled in very quickly and everything’s been good.
“The style is exactly what I expected. I had seen some video clips of Celtic matches, so I knew what I should expect and the style of play suits me well.
“I think I’m fit enough to play. I was training all the time at Dortmund and I wasn’t injured.
“It’s normal when you haven’t played a lot that you need some games to adapt and get your fitness back. But against Hibs I felt good.”
The 24 year old, having started on Wednesday wants to stay in the team. It could be he’ll get the chance to play down the left with Scotty Sinclair ahead of him on Sunday.
Emilio isn’t badly hurt but you would expect him to miss out on Sunday with then bruising on his ankle.
“I have the qualities to play and to play in the team is always my goal,” Jerry said.
