When you splash out £7million on a centre-back, you expect them to be decent at both ends of the pitch.
Yet, even going by that train of thought, nobody could’ve foreseen just how vital Christopher Jullien was going to be for us going forward. The £7m man (Scottish Sun), signed from Toulouse in the summer, has netted seven goals since arriving at the club.
These strikes from Jullien haven’t been when we’ve been 4-0 ahead in games and cruising either. Nope, he’s scored vital go-ahead goals and winning efforts against the likes of Rangers, Lazio, Hamilton Academical, and Aberdeen respectively.
Meanwhile, Celtic have a minimum of 12 games to play this season. However, it’s more likely we have 15 or 16 given the fact we’re big favourites to knock out Copenhagen and St Johnstone in the Europa League and Scottish Cup respectively. Respectfully, of course, the job is still to be done in both ties.
And in that time, Jullien has a chance to break a five-year duck of no Celtic centre-backs reaching 10 goals in a season.
Can Jullien match van Dijk?
The last defender to have managed that fabled number was Virgil van Dijk back in the 2014/15 season. The Liverpool superstar was part of Ronny Deila’s double-winning squad that season, and rattled home four Premiership goals, four Scottish Cup strikes, and two in the Champions League qualifiers (Transfermarkt).
Jullien so far has four in the Premiership and two in Europe like Virgil. However, he only has one in cup competitions – granted it was a last-minute winner against Rangers that will be remembered much more than any of van Dijk’s.
It would be great to see Jullien at least match the record if he can’t break it. He’s played 42 times for the Hoops this season, which means he has an average of a goal every six games (Transfermarkt). Not bad for a man who’s sole purpose is to keep the ball out of the net at the other end.
Unfortunately, however, he’ll need to pick it up a little bit more if he is going to match the tally. Staying at this current average would likely see him just miss out.
But Jullien’s aerial threat overall has been incredible this season. As well as the ones he has scored, think of all the headed opportunities he’s had that should’ve led to goals. Hibernian at Easter Road, Livingston at the Tony Macaroni Arena, and Rangers at Parkhead are just some examples of when Jullien has gone close to adding to his tally.
There are plenty more examples too, showing just how effective he’s been from crosses into the penalty box. Hopefully, he can round off the season with three trophies and a fine 10-goal mark. He’s only three away from achieving the latter.
Do you think Christopher Jullien will get to the magic 10? Could he be the hero against Copenhagen tonight? Is he our best centre-back since van Dijk? Let us know your thoughts on all of this in the discussion forum below.
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