Celtic defender Christopher Jullien could face a tough afternoon against Aberdeen striker Sam Cosgrove on Sunday, former Dons star Duncan Shearer has told The Scottish Sun.
The Hoops make the trip to Pittodrie on Sunday just days after a potentially gruelling 90 minutes at home to Lazio in the Europa League.
It’s definitely a match that has the potential to see Celtic drop points. Our performance away to Livingston in the wake of a win over Cluj is proof enough of that.
Shearer thinks Cosgrove can take confidence from that Livi performance and exploit Jullien just like Lyndon Dykes did.
As quoted by The Scottish Sun, he said: “Cosgrove should just have a look at how the boy Dykes did against Jullien in that 2-0 victory for Livi a few weeks back.
“He can take plenty of heart from that, even more so because I think Cosgrove is a better striker than Dykes. Jullien’s looked the part for most of the season, but that day at Livingston he had a nightmare.
“Cosgrove’s so strong in the air, but he is also decent with his feet.”
Jullien must learn from defeat
To be fair to Shearer, he does have a point.
Jullien has looked like a good signing but he undeniably struggled against the physical threat of Dykes. Unless he improves on Sunday then it could be another difficult afternoon at Pittodrie.
It’s up to the Frenchman to prove he can learn from that Almondvale experience and cope with Cosgrove in a far more robust manner.
The Aberdeen man is having a stellar season. To date he’s scored an impressive 15 goals in 16 appearances. He’ll be the man to stop if we’re to pick up a positive result and maintain our status as league leaders.
Fortunately the 22-year-old doesn’t have the best of records against the Hoops. Of the eight matches he’s played against us, he’s lost six of them, winning just once. He’s also only scored one goal against us.
We’ll be favourite for the three points, have no doubt about that, but it’ll require a big performance from Jullien and company.
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