The Celtic 'problem' that Idah admits is a good thing

How do you feel about the result in midweek now that you have had a few days to reflect on it?

I think it's been a positive week, obviously, with the league game against Hearts - that was a good win. The game the other night was disappointing, but I think you have to take the positives from the game. Taking a point away from that game is a decent point at the end of the day as Club Brugge are a good side, so I think this week has been good.

Is it a sign of where this team is at the moment that you can be not at your best and you don't get a win, but ultimately you still get enough that you can take positive and still come out and be feeling quite good with yourself?

Yeah, I think it says a lot about us this season. I think there have been times when we've not been playing great, especially in the first halves we haven't been ourselves, but I think to be a great team, that's where we need to come back and ensure the character in the team. I think we've done that really well this season, not just in the last couple of weeks, but the whole season. So, yeah, we keep building on that and trying to do better.

What is the psychological challenge like going from the big Champions League nights with all the glamour and excitement that goes around to the so-called run-of-the-mill Premiership games?

Yeah, it can be tough, especially for us boys who haven't experienced the Champions League. It is tough going from such a high and then playing the league games again. It's all about learning, and I think with the experienced boys in the group, they help a lot, the staff help a lot. It's not a case of, yeah, you're playing a league game, you can drop the standards. We want to keep the standards as high as possible every game, so that's the challenge for us, and we've been doing that well. We're just going to keep driving forward and doing it right.

You said at times the team haven't been at their best this season, but when you look at the record in the Champions League, the record in the league, that might be quite a scary thought for other teams, especially domestically, with how good your points tally is and the fact that you feel you can still get better?

Yeah, I think that's the expectation we've got of ourselves. Yeah, I know the table looks like we're doing great, and yeah, we have to be fair to ourselves, but I think within the group, we know at times that we probably haven't been our best. We know we've got a lot more to give, and that's something we're working on every single day. We've been brilliant this season, but we want to do it better, and yeah, everyone wants to try to do more.

It has been quite a stop-start season due to the international breaks, but there are none of those coming up, is this a period now, where you can just go straight through, is that maybe the best for all teams to be able to just build that momentum and put in top performances game after game?

Yeah,  I think international breaks can be quite difficult. You know, being away for a while, and that's coming back a different period, it's a long flight, it can be tough, so now's a good time for us to regroup, get together and get as many wins and points as we can.

How do you reflect on your own personal season, so far?

Probably not the start I wanted. I think comparing it to last season, obviously finishing on such a high, I thought I'd come in and score a lot of goals and whatnot, so it's probably not the start I wanted, but when I reflect back and if I look at my pre-season, I didn't have the best of pre-seasons, and then it's only the last couple of days I looked at my stats, I've got a goal every 70 minutes, so I think you have to look at that and be proud of that and just keep going. Obviously, for me, the goal is to score as many goals as I can, and that's what I'm trying, and when I see stats like that, I just have to remind myself, you know, it's not probably as bad as what I thought it was going like, so I just have to keep doing what I'm doing and keeps going goals.

Is it important that it doesn't get into your head reflecting on last season's stats and that you just do your own thing?

I need to keep my head straightforward, but I think there are times you do have to remind yourself how good you are, and if there are times I'm doing well, you have to be confident enough to think to yourself, okay, I've done this before, why can't I do it again, you know, so I think it keeps me on the straight and narrow, and I'm a confident player, and for me, when I look back at last season and see what I've done, I know I'm capable of doing that again, if not better, so I just need to keep doing the right things and doing better.

Your starting minutes in matches have been few and far between, is that a frustration, or is that just part of being at a club where there is so much talent?

Yeah, it's not frustrating, I think when I signed I knew what the plan was, and I think I proved to myself many times before that it doesn't matter how long I play, I can make an impact when I start or I am coming off the bench, so to me, it's not, it doesn't bother me how much minutes I play, at the end of the day, it's how much I can affect the team, and how much of an impact I can make, so yeah, I don't think it is frustrating, I think, with the team we've got, it's been brilliant. The lads talked about it the other day, it's the best problem you could have, you could play anyone on the side, so that's something that we keep building on this season. Yeah, we've been fantastic.

It is a fine balance as you say you can do better as a team, but you can't be too hard on yourself and you need to keep pushing yourself. Is that a difficult thing to do?

Yeah, I'm not saying we haven't been, I don't think we've been poor, it's just that we know ourselves, we probably can do a bit better, and we want to push to the highest standards that we want to get to. I think everyone as a group knows how good we all are as players and even the staff, we all want to be at the highest level possible, and that's what we're striving for each and every day, so that's the standards we want to get to.

Is that different for you as well in that last season you had a set period of time to make your mark and now you are a permanent player. Has that been difficult for you in terms of the dynamic?

Not really, I think to be fair it's all down to the boys, you know when I first came on loan, they welcomed me, and it was unbelievably great, so coming back it just felt like I was always part of the team, and it made no difference to me whether I was on loan, or if I'm here permanently, I always want to give my best to Celtic, so it's been great, it's been great so far, and we just want to do good things.