How are you enjoying life at Celtic at the moment?

Really well. The city’s beautiful, the people are great and here at the club is wonderful. Really, it’s the best time in my life.

Why is that?

Because we are playing well, we are like a family. We support each other.

Tell us about the enjoyment you’re getting from the football...

We are improving game-by-game and day-by-day in our training sessions. We want to keep track of what the manager (Ange Postecoglou) wants from us. You can see also on the pitch we are giving 100 per cent and that’s most important.

Did you think Celtic was going to have this effect on you?

Yes, because Celtic is a big name in Europe.

You’re currently playing on the left, how much are you enjoying it or is it tricky for you?

For now, it’s going well. We play so many games that in my head I’m now a left-back – but just for now. We must continue like that and tomorrow [against Hearts] is also just (about) three points.

How have you had to adapt your game playing at left-back rather than right-back?

It’s a little different because I’m now always looking over my right shoulder but when I’m right-back it’s my left shoulder. But it’s more important that we are playing well – we have good players, really good staff and if we continue like this we can achieve our goals.

You’ve been playing well in that position but do you see your long-term future at Celtic as a right-back?

Yeah.

Ange Postecoglou likes to have his full-backs on the ball, often coming inside. D’you feel that benefits your game?

Yes because the ball is always between your legs! In my first game, against Rangers, I had 120 touches - which is unbelievable for a full-back. But I’m enjoying it.

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You scored a penalty the other night [against Leverkusen], is that Panenka-style something you’d do again or are you going to have to change it up next time?

We will see on the next penalty. I was talking with Joe Hart [and said] for my next penalty I would take a Panenka – I kept my word.

What are you expecting from Hearts?

We’re looking at videos of Hearts. They play well, a 3-4-3. We want to play even better than the last game. We want to improve. We want to grow like a team. If we want to achieve our goals we must play attacking football, scoring goals and defending well.

There seems plenty of confidence that you guys can go and impose that style on any team...

Every building has little steps – if you want to go to the top you must reach every step. Because of that, we support each other.

It’s a really packed fixture calendar – how easy is it to maintain focus?

We have like 10 more games until the rest of the season [the winter break is after the Rangers game on January 2]. It’s tough games but also, like any player, I want to take a trophy and every game is like the last important game – but if we want to be champions we must beat everybody. Because of that everybody is here.

How difficult is it to maintain fitness and avoid injuries and is there anything different in training when you’ve got all these games packed together?

If we have like three games in seven days, maybe one day we are all together as a full squad because after the game we have one day regeneration then another day we’re a full squad on the training ground. For me, if you play four games in five days it’s good – I love it, I like to play football.

What’s the mood in the camp like?

We are confident but we are going day-by-day and game-by-game, that’s the way to improve ourselves.

Celtic host Hearts on Thursday in the Premiership (kick-off 7.45pm)