Christopher Jullien silences critics with fine Celtic performance

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The Christopher Jullien critics were certainly out before Thursday night.

It’s fair to say the Frenchman certainly had his social media critics after a recent post on the platform. Jullien took the odd decision of thanking Livingston’s Lyndon Dykes for wakening him up from any complacency he may have had regarding Scottish football.

That came after he was bullied by the Livi forward at the Tony Macaroni Arena three weeks ago. Celtic lost the game 2-0 and Jullien put the following post up on social media:

https://twitter.com/Chri6ViF/status/1184514754271944704

It was a post that certainly brought a few sniggers from opposition fans. Calling himself nervous seemed to attract the wrong kind of attention.

Jullien sent a fine statement today

So all eyes were on Celtic’s towering Frenchman this afternoon at Pittodrie. He was up against the bullish Sam Cosgrove alongside Kristoffer Ajer.

It’s fair to say that Cosgrove seemed to often target Jullien. Whether that was a reaction to his tweet would be interesting to know. But big Jullien gave as good as he got. He never gave the Englishman a sniff, and also expressed himself on the ball with some terrific diagonals.

The main positive for us as supporters was that he didn’t look “nervous” this afternoon. He was always in control against 15-goal striker Cosgrove. The fact Aberdeen never had a shot whilst he was on the pitch was credit to him.

Unfortunately, he only lasted 45 minutes. There hasn’t been a reason given by manager Neil Lennon. It’s clear that whatever held Jullien back was no big deal.

Nir Bitton came on in his place and we certainly lost some of our composure at the back. Aberdeen got further up the pitch, and Cosgrove got slightly more joy. Bitton, however, still didn’t make any major errors.

Today was a powerful response from Jullien. He added to his character-filled Lazio winner with a dominant performance against a striker similar to that of Dykes. He proved to the supporters he can roll the sleeves up when things get tough. Considering how much he struggled at Livi, that’s a big boost for us.