Christopher Jullien thanked all his previous managers and coaches at Celtic in his farewell message after completing his move back to France to join Montpellier, well, all except one. The Frenchman omitted to mention Ange Postecoglou who opted to stick with the central defensive partnership of Cameron Carter-Vickers and Carl Starfelt after Jullien recovered from his knee injury that had kept him sidelined for over a year.
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Jullien cut a frustrated figure at Celtic last season, he was given some game-time and an emotional welcome back from the Celtic support in a cup tie against Raith Rovers but other than some pre-season action in Austria, when Jullien grabbed his final goal for Celtic, that was that as far as his Celtic career was concerned.
For a player who had scored a late winning goal in the Europa League against Lazio and a cup final winner against theRangers, it must have been hard to take to be left out in the cold as Celtic regained the long established position as the dominant force in Scottish football, at the top of the league, looking down on theRangers.
The former Celtic defender, who yesterday was caught up in the crowd trouble in his side’s match against his former club Toulouse, has been speaking to the official Ligue 1 website and rather suprisingly given the above, he was full of praise for Ange Postecoglou and his style of football with the current Celtic manager leaving a lasting impression on the experienced centre-half.
“As I said, I learned a lot about rigor. I also progressed tactically,” Jullien said. “I can better understand the game and see what bothers the opponent. Even though I didn’t play last season and it was humanly complicated with coach Ange Postecoglou, I learned a lot.
“He is a coach who relies a lot on video and tries to get into the opponent’s head. Thanks to this, I realised that when you push the opposing team to do exactly what they don’t want, you can outsmart them to an unimaginable point. It’s like chess.
“If the opposing team can’t find a parade, you feast. That’s why I think I’ve become more tactically sharp. But I always try to improve on this aspect, because it can allow you to make huge differences and be ahead of your opponent,” Jullien said.
So it appears that Jullien has been as impressed as the rest of us after spending a year watching the Celtic manager in action and he reckons that that experience will help him become an even better player. We certainly wish the big man all the best.
