Chris Sutton knows a thing or two about commanding defenders- during his Celtic days he lined up alongside Bobo Balde, Joos Valgaeren and Johan Mjallby.
Those three giants were the cornerstone to the success enjoyed under Martin O’Neill as Sutton teed up goals for Henrik Larsson.
Balde joined the gang in 2001 after a contract dispute with Toulouse and instantly slotted in as Celtic made a mark in Europe with strikers knowing that they had been in a game if they came up against O’Neill’s back three.
Last summer Celtic returned to Toulouse to pay £7m for Chris Jullien. Clearly he has little resemblance to the one and only Bobo but if you were to mix up the qualities of Valgaeren and Mjallby you might come up with Jullien.
The bigger the occasion the bigger the performance from Jullien with Sutton taking note of some special qualities highlighted by his performance against Copenhagen in the Europa League.
The former Celtic striker told the Daily Record:
The French defender has never looked back since he had that starring performance at Ibrox against Rangers at the beginning of the season.
Sure there’s been the odd moment, but, in the main, he’s developed into the sort of stopper you would expect to be getting when you shell out £7million.
Jullien is brave. You could see that the other night when he was absolutely smashed in the face by a challenge and he recovered and responded in the ideal manner.
He reads the game well and he made some vital interventions as he often does. The goals that he is managing to score down the other end of the field are just an added bonus.
You can see that other players are responding to him now. He has a presence on the pitch and within the group which has been growing and developing since he signed.
Callum McGregor is likely to be handed the captaincy tomorrow if Scott Brown is out injured but behind him Jullien is more than capable of keeping everyone in check at the back.