SCOTT BROWN’S first experience of playing away from home with Celtic in Europe was a rather traditional backs to the wall approach and hope the ball hits off someone in the opposition box.

It was a tactic, if you could call it that, which rarely worked. Even with the better players he has lined up beside, the away record was not something to shout about.

And now? Well, now the Celtic captain believes this team, under Brendan Rodgers, can keep possession for fun, are good enough to dominate good sides and even take a point or three on their travels.

The evidence is there. Draws at Borussia Monchengladbach and Manchester City last season in the Champions League group stage were the result of performances full of confidence, maturity and intelligence.

Sure, Celtic will have to do some chasing this season. They are hardly going to ship up at the Bernabeu and not give Luka Modric a kick; however, Brown believes European football is going to see something different over the next four months.

“The way we play are definitely capable of being there after Christmas,” said Brown. “This is the best football side I have been involved in during my time here. We are bullying teams with the ball, pressing them high and making them punt it long.

“We used to do it as well but now we have a manager who did fantastically well with Liverpool and Swansea, who bases his game on passing and pressing.

“The team has bonded on and off the park. It’s nothing to do with socialising, it’s to do with meetings and training sessions, working on our game plan. It’s easy to say it but it’s a different matter to go and do it, but the manager gets his message across.

“Everything is extremely professional with the gaffer and his backroom staff. They work out everything that is best for us as a team and as individuals.

“We run through different formations depending on whether we are on or off the ball. We have probably got three or four different formations and all of the lads understand their roles.

“We dictate how we play due to our pressing. It’s about winning the ball back, being brave to take the ball from Craig at the back instead of hitting it long and hoping Leigh Griffiths will stick one away.”

Possession is ten tenths of the law in the Champions League. The best sides, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich tend to pass the ball quite well.

It would be silly, of course, to suggest even this fine Celtic team are at that levels but this is who they will be playing and for them to do well against the best then they need to be better with the ball.

As Brown said: “We had 500 passes against Astana and some of them even went forward! Everyone brings up the Barcelona stat to us from a few years back. They had about 900 passes at Parkhead - and we had about 110.

“I watched it again on television and I thought to get 110 was fantastic!

“But this is proper football we are playing now. We have a manager who is trying to better everyone and we are trying to better ourselves. We’re flying the flag for Scottish football as well and we want to push it as far as we can go.

“It is an achievement for a Scottish side to have 500 passes. As a midfielder, I want to be keeping the ball. At 32 I don’t want to be chasing all of the time any more. I want to be dictating the play and that’s what we are trying to do.

“We want to do that against the best teams in the world and not just be running around and defending for 90 minutes, then hoping for a set piece.

“Our mentality is we will score a goal wherever we go. We defended very well in Rosenborg and creates a few chances. They came at us in the second half but we have two great wingers with pace and a striker who knows how to score goals.

“We know we can defend but we also know we have the pace to attack on the counter as well.

“We’ll get chances, it’s just a matter of putting them away.”