Jim Duffy ranks Celtic centre-back Chris Jullien 8th in list of top 10 defenders

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Dumbarton manager and experienced pundit Jim Duffy has bizarrely ranked Christopher Jullien eighth out of the top 10 defenders in Scottish football.

The list was today produced in the Daily Record, and has our man sitting behind the likes of Andrew Considine, Scott McKenna, and Declan Gallagher respectively.

Duffy has put Jullien’s partner Kristoffer Ajer at the top of the table, labeling him “the top defender in Scotland right now”.

But whilst Ajer’s quality can’t be argued, Duffy did give a debatable opinion on his French centre-back partner. Here’s how the Sons boss justified his decision in the Record:

“I haven’t seen enough of Julien to really judge him. He is also still finding his feet at Celtic. He is building a solid partnership with Kristoffer Ajer and it looks promising.

“He still needs to add a bit of consistency to his game. I have seen have some strong, strong games but when I was at Livingston the other week and Lyndon Dykes gave him a torrid time.

“These are the games you need to learn from but he is another who is big, strong, athletic and good on the ball. He will only get better.”

An unfair assessment on Jullien that doesn’t do him justice

Duffy says he hasn’t watched Jullien too much, and that’s fair enough. However, it’s then a tad unfair to try and rank him on a list and randomly place him eighth.

The truth is that Jullien is actually the standout defender in Scottish football at the moment. He’s dominated the likes of Jermain Defoe, Alfredo Morelos, and Sam Cosgrove to name a few. Jullien certainly has plenty of victims in his record already.

And that’s not only in Scotland too. In Europe, the former Toulouse man has done a tremendous job against players such as M’Baye Niang, Bilel Omrani, and Ciro Immobile respectively. The likes of McKenna and Considine couldn’t live with that level of threat.

It’s fair to point out Jullien’s horrible outing against Livingston last month. However, he wasn’t the only one to be poor in West Lothian. He did struggle with the battle against Lyndon Dykes, but he recovered and bossed him at Parkhead just four days ago.

So this is disappointing from Duffy – a straight-talking and down-to-earth pundit. It’s a list that most certainly makes Jullien out to be a lot worse than he is. It’s time for Jim to start watching him regularly we think!