GREG TAYLOR insists Celtic will treat Livingston with the same respect as Real Madrid – because the badge demands it. The Scotland full-back has experienced difficult away games against Shakhtar Donetsk, RB Leipzig and he and his team-mates are gearing up for a trip to the Bernabeu next week.
But Taylor has offered assurances there will be no change in preparation for the visit to West Lothian as he admitted the Livingston encounter is arguably as big a match as that against the Champions League holders next Wednesday.
“The badge demands it. It is as simple as that. It does,” said Taylor of the importance of every match regardless of taking on Europe’s elite or domestic competition.
“You will see the fans when we go to Livingston. It will be like a home game for us and they will be cheering us on from minute one until 90.
“With the way that Europe has fell for us this year, we want to give them something to cheer about domestically.
“They (Livingston) have shown that throughout their time in the Premiership. They have got a good way of playing and they stick to it whilst all playing for each other.
“So we all know it is going to be difficult, but it’s a game a lot of us now have experience of and, when you get experience of occasions domestic or Champions League, it does help.
“Every game is big at a club this size and Sunday is no different because Livingston away is a difficult game.
“It is a game we will approach in the same way we do every game, treating our opposition with the utmost respect and aiming to put on a performance.”
While Celtic have struggled to earn results in the Champions League, there have been many positives to take from the performance levels achieved against high-calibre opposition.
And for Taylor, if Celtic can replicate their performances from European nights when on league duty then it’ll be more than good enough to keep up their title ambitions.
Detailing his hopes for a statement performance on top of another positive result in the Scottish Premiership, the defender said: “If we can reach the levels we have reached in the Champions League, we will be pretty alright in the league stuff and domestic games because the level of performance needed to compete at Champions League level is really, really high.
“It is the best competition in the world, but Sunday is now the big one. Livingston has been a tough place to go throughout the years and they will be wanting to get a result.
“Equally, we want to do more than get a result, we also want to put on a performance for the fans.”
Taylor has echoed a positive stance on European learning as that of Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou as he remains similarly determined to continue to improve on the continent.
It's been difficult in terms of pure scorelines with just two points to show for their efforts after five outings in the competition – but Taylor is confident Celtic have proven their not far off achieving significant results in the Champions League.
However, he wouldn’t agree that too much was expected from his side in their return to the European top table as he demanded Celtic achieve success on every front – not just in Scotland.
“I wouldn’t say so, no,” said Taylor when quizzed on whether expectations were too lofty before the Champions League kicked-off. “When you play for Celtic, the club deserves success at every level and Europe is no different.
“We have come up short, ultimately. But I think the fans can see in our performance that we are not far away. “A lot of the boys who are experiencing this for the first time, myself included, will be more-equipped and ready to go if we get a second crack at it.
“I think you can see in level of performance that we are not far away. We have handled these occasions, which are big ones.
“You can see 60,000 inside the stadium wanting success for the team and, of course, it does show that are not far away.
“It gives you the incentive to do it again. It is unbelievable, it improves you as a player. You feel as though you are getting better, albeit, it is difficult to learn by not getting results we want, but it does make you want it more.”
It's been somewhat of a landmark season for Taylor both on a club and a personal level.
With the club back in the Champions League and Postecoglou desperate to earn back-to-back league triumphs much was made of the need for reinforcements at left-back.
But Taylor has nailed his spot in the team with a meteoric rise in form after adapting to Postecoglou’s inverted wing-back system. But he’s not interested in giving himself a pat on the back as he insisted he’s just determined to keep improving and take nothing for granted.
“I’ll leave that to other people to decide,” he said on the suggestion of playing some of the best football of his career.
“I just try and improve every day and I have a manager who believes in me with a philosophy that I enjoy playing in.”
