Celtic midfielder Mika Baur expressed confidence that the team is building strong momentum as they prepare for back-to-back Old Firm derbies against Rangers. The Scottish Premiership side secured their fifth consecutive win at the start of the season with a 2-1 victory over St. Mirren on Saturday.
Celtic's next match is against St. Johnstone on Wednesday, followed by a league and cup double-header against rivals Rangers. The first derby is the Premier Sports Cup quarter-final at Ibrox, with the league clash at Celtic Park the following week.
Baur, a 22-year-old German midfielder who joined Celtic from Paderborn for £6.8 million in the summer, stated that confidence and belief are growing within the squad. "Of course you read a lot about the Rangers game," Baur said. "But we have a game on Wednesday first against St Johnstone. We have to win that one, so my focus is on that match – then we can go for Rangers. It's an exciting period. There's nothing better than playing every three days."
He added that the demanding schedule of playing every few days suits him and requires every player to contribute. "It's play-recover-play again, but I really enjoy that. It also means you need every player to play a part because there's a lot of minutes. But I look forward to the next 14 days."
Baur, who has made two starts and three appearances for Celtic, acknowledged that he is still adapting to the team and the Scottish game. "Everything is still new and I'm still figuring out how everything works. It's high intensity, there's a lot of pressure in the duels, a lot of hard fights. But if we play our style and control it then I think we are capable of winning games. I think we are getting better."
Despite his relatively small stature, Baur believes his attitude is well-suited to the physical demands of Scottish football and he enjoys the "dirty work" involved. He also praised manager Martin O'Neill and the coaching staff, particularly Mark Fotheringham, for making him feel welcome and aiding his transition with a mix of English and German explanations.
Celtic defender Cameron Carter-Vickers also commented on the team's performance, noting that improvement is still needed. "I don't think I've ever had an easy or simple game at St Mirren," Carter-Vickers said. "Pretty much whenever you go away from home you always expect it to be tough."
He added that the team can control games better and needs to avoid resorting to long passes that open up the game unnecessarily. "I think in general we can control games better. Most of their chances probably came after 70, 75 minutes. We started going a bit longer and we were giving them the ball back, the game was a bit more open and end to end, which didn't really suit us. That's definitely something we can improve."