Celtic star Mika Baur is showing the right kind of mentality ahead of Wednesday's Premiership clash with St Johnstone. The Bhoys picked up another big win over the weekend, defeating the next best in-form team in St Mirren and coming from behind to do it.
Liam Scales atoned for a handball that led to the penalty and the first goal, and then Yang Hyun-jun gave the Bhoys a parting gift before heading off to the Asian Games with South Korea, scoring the winner.
Celtic now have an incredibly busy run of fixtures, regularly in midweek action, starting on Wednesday night, when they face St Johnstone, then facing Rangers in a Premier Sports Cup quarter-final on Sunday.
“You read a lot about the Rangers game, but we to play St Johnstone first on Wednesday," Baur reminded.
“We have to win that one, so my focus is on that match – then we can go for Rangers. It’s an exciting period. There’s nothing better than playing every three days.
“It’s play-recover-play again, but I really enjoy that. It also means you need every player to play a part because there’s a lot of minutes, but I look forward to the next 14 days.
“I’m still learning as this was only my third game and only my second start. Everything is still new and I’m still figuring out how everything works.
“It’s high intensity, there’s a lot of pressure in the duels, a lot of hard fights. But if we play our style and control it then I think we are capable of winning games. I believe we are getting better.”
Baur has made a good impact so far, and that's despite playing a little out of position in a slightly deeper role, although he is being given more licence to play forward.
The attractive part of the German's game is that he always seems to want the ball, even in difficult moments, and Martin O'Neill seems to be learning how to get the best out of him.
Baur was asked to play a more defensive role in that second leg with LASK, which saw him horribly exposed, but it's simply not his game, and now that he is playing a more exploratory role, Celtic are getting the best out of him and not seeing those issues.
Baur looks to be a fine signing, especially from the perspective of value for money, costing only £4.5million, albeit with another £2.3million agreed in add-ons, some of which would have been wrapped up in Champions League qualification.
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