"I don't think so!" With a beaming smile, a tongue-in-cheek Nicolas Kuhn dismissed any notion he'll start for Celtic at right-back against Motherwell at Fir Park on Sunday.

The 24-year-old is riding a wave of phenomenal form in green and white at the moment, with six goals and eight assists in all competitions this season so far. Better still for Celtic fans, he shows little sign of slowing down.

Deployed as a winger under Brendan Rodgers with a penchant for hitting the byline, breezing past opponents, and, clearly, laying the ball up for his goal-bound teammates, the German has quickly become one of the manager's most reliable stars at the top end of the pitch.

What we're less used to seeing, however, is Kuhn with his back to the wall in defence. And yet, the forward player looked every bit the makeshift full-back while helping out his right-sided colleague Alistair Johnston against Atalanta in Bergamo on Wednesday.

It may not have been the prettiest match in UEFA Champions League history, granted, but it was a momentous occasion for the Scottish champions – a night wherein they showed a grittier, more tenacious side to their game on the continent, while sufficiently cleansing the wounds of Dortmund with a thoroughness domestic Scottish football simply cannot afford.

"It was a great point for us," said Kuhn. "It was much different to what we're used to. We had to defend really deep, and we’ve had a bit of fun already between me and Ali, that I'm the new right-back! There was a lot of defensive work but we had to do that and I think we did well.

"From the beginning it was clear that, especially Daizen and I, we had to help out, because they overloaded the side with three, sometimes four players."

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Echoing the repeated sentiments of his manager, Kuhn freely admits Celtic's 7-1 dressing down at the hands of Borussia Dortmund was not good enough, and that lessons had to be learned in defensive terms should the Parkhead side stand a chance of progressing in the competition.

With four points from their first three games – and with five games remaining as per the tournament's new format – progress is possible.

Breaking into the automatically-qualifying top-eight of the Champions League league-phase would be a tall order, but finishing between ninth and 24th place to reach the play-off round is still very much on the table.

Kuhn added: "That's our goal, and for a lot of us it's [our] first Champions League games. But we try to improve and that's what we did from the Dortmund game. Now we have a lot of games to go, we know that, and everything is possible.

"[Against Atalanta] I think we were quite happy with the result at half-time. We knew it was going to be difficult to defend all the crosses and stuff but we did well. The message was just to keep going and be focused, that they would come out of the break with power, but we showed great mentality."

That mentality saw Celtic endure wave after wave of attack from the reigning UEFA Europa League champions for 90+4 minutes. In the closing stages the visitors even managed to step out on the counter, and with more luck and, indeed, precision may have snatched a goal against the run of play.

"Yeah, I really had a good feeling that we might get a good counter," said Kuhn. "I think with Kyogo we had a good chance, but in the end, I think if we play a little bit more calmly and take our situations and chances, we could take the three points."

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Doing just that is the order of the day at Fir Park tomorrow, when Celtic travel down the M74 to North Lanarkshire for a 3pm kick-off. Like Celtic all told, Kuhn has had a near perfect start to the 2024/25 campaign. As we've come to expect – not least by his unlikely defensive heroics in Italy – he's laser-focused on doing whatever he can to help the team succeed.

And if that results in upping his own numbers, even better.

Kuhn added: "A full pre-season was really important for me and now I'm feeling good. I have a good connection with everyone, with the staff, with the players, so I'm just feeling good and always want the team to win.

"I'm happy [with my own form]. I would be happier if I’d scored Wednesday, but yeah, I'm feeling good. I want to push my scoring rate, so that's what I'm trying to do. But the team is doing well. We create a lot of chances, so that's the most important and the goals will come from it."