Christopher Jullien has revealed the one aspect of life at Celtic that he has not liked since moving to the Scottish Premiership from the French Ligue 1 earlier this summer.
Christopher Jullien has been a huge hit at Parkhead since joining the Scottish Champions earlier in the summer. He has quickly established himself in the Celtic first-team and formed a formidable centre-back pairing with Kris Ajer. But it appears that the Frenchman is still adjusting to life in Scotland.
Jullien revealed in a recent interview that he is not overly keen on the rough nature of the game in the Premiership. Jullien spent his entire career playing in France and Germany before joining Celtic. And while both the Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga are high quality leagues, they are very different in style. The increased physicality of the game in Scotland has quite clearly been an eye-opener for the French defender.
He has gone through quite a few battles during in his short Celtic career. He had a horror performance when Celtic lost away at Livingston earlier this season and was completely dominated by Lyndon Dykes. It even lead to him to sending a public apology to Celtic fans and claiming his performance was down to him being too nervous before the game.
Speaking with beIN Sports while back in his native France during the international break, when asked about the nature of Scottish football, Jullien replied:
"“There is no VAR in Scotland. I don’t want to say that everything is anything goes, but it is a bit more physical. I think the game in England and Scotland is known for that.“Yes, yes, during stoppages and even in the game it’s a lot rougher. I wouldn’t say I like it or that I like the elbowing but there’s give and take and it’s not bad.”"
It is safe to say that Jullien has not looked fazed at all despite being new to the rougher style of football. And except the few early growing pains he has taken to Scottish football like a duck to water and is thriving at Celtic at the moment. He has already featured in 21 games for the Hoops this season and has firmly established himself as a regular starter.
If this is how Christopher Jullien while trying to adjust to a new style of football, we can’t wait to see how he does when he is fully familiar with the Scottish game.