Ange Postecoglou explains why he dropped experienced Celtic player from matchday squads

By David Walton

February 9, 2022

Ange Postecoglou has explained why he’s dropped Christopher Jullien from his last 2 matchday squads, and thankfully it isn’t due to an injury.

Jullien managed to make 3 consecutive squads against Alloa, Hearts, and Dundee United respectively. However, in the last 2 fixtures against Rangers and Motherwell, Chris has been nowhere to be seen.

The Frenchman has only just returned from a long-term injury that kept him out of action for well over a year. Many fans had been looking forward to his on-field return. However, so far, we’ve yet to see him play even a single minute.

But Ange has confirmed that Jullien simply hasn’t been on the bench so that the Hoops can get more attacking players involved in their squads.

As quoted by the Scotsman, the Celtic boss said: “Obviously when you are looking at the bench there is no point having too many players from one position in there.

“So from our perspective, the bench is there to, hopefully, help us during the game, and for the most part we have attacking players on there. But Chris is training well, he’s fit and available and will get an opportunity. But when that opportunity comes, we’ll see. It’s got to be right and he’ll get an opportunity soon.”

Celtic squad return for Christopher Jullien won’t be far away

You can understand this from Ange. After all, if we already have the likes of Stephen Welsh on the bench, there isn’t really any need for another centre-back.

It would only take a freakish incident for us to need to sub 2 centre-backs in one game. It makes more sense to have more attacking threats available to choose from given that’s what Celtic generally need if things go bad.

Some may look at it as a concern that Chris hasn’t been involved in the last couple of games. After all, you’ll have plenty who believe he’s one of our top defenders. But it’s difficult to justify dropping anyone for him at the moment.

We all hope to see the former Toulouse man back in the squad soon, and chances are that will happen. This Sunday’s Scottish Cup clash against Raith Rovers, for example, looks like a tremendous opportunity for Jullien to be involved again.

But the reality is that Ange simply doesn’t see Chris as a first-choice. That may be difficult to digest given the hype over his return to action. However, it’s the truth, and given Celtic are winning every time they step out onto a football pitch, why change what isn’t broken?

Hopefully we see Jullien back on the pitch again soon. But there’s no reason to believe Ange is going to be changing his backline up permanently.

In other news, SPFL boss states Celtic have handed him a “reality check” after drubbing