Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers claimed he was beginning to see the “top-class” midfielder he initially expected in Reo Hatate after the Japan international got their season up and running against Kilmarnock.
Hatate drilled home from 18 yards to send Celtic on their way to a 4-0 win in their opening William Hill Premiership game and continued to pose a threat.
The 26-year-old started last season on the bench as Rodgers preferred the now departed David Turnbull amid speculation over Hatate’s future, and the Japanese player ended the campaign with three goals from 21 appearances after being hit by several leg muscle injuries.
“I never saw the player that I hoped to see at the beginning of last season, for whatever reason,” Rodgers said.
“I was aware of him and I’d seen him play and liked what I’ve seen, but he never really got going through pre-season last year, not to what I was wanting.
“And then he gets injured and then it was really broken for him and he had little spells where he came into the team but not consistently.
“He knows I like him as a player and and he knows what I want from him as a player, and what I’ve seen over the course of pre-season, he’s top class. He’s been absolutely brilliant since he’s come back.”
At times last season, Rodgers seemed to be frustrated with Hatate losing the ball in the wrong area in big matches.
“It’s just probably him maybe gaining a bit more clarity in what I want from a central midfield player,” he said.
“I want all the players to do the very best for Celtic and then that ambition to do well for Celtic will help them in their individual careers.
“So for me it was always about balance between a wonderful gifted player and taking the ball and how he operates in space.
“For me it was about keeping the risk in the game because I don’t like midfield players that keep the ball 10 times out of 10. It’s no good. But there’s areas of the pitch in which to risk it and I think now he really sees the balance in the game between keeping the ball, keeping good concentration, linking the game, but still having the threat.
“And you would have seen that in pre-season. You would have seen it at times in the second half of last season, but now I see a much more complete player.”
Celtic emulated four-goal displays against DC United, Manchester City and Chelsea during their American tour thanks to further goals from Liam Scales, Nicolas Kuhn and Anthony Ralston.
“We just continued the last three months of the season into the pre-season and into today,” Rodgers said. “I thought we were excellent.”
Killie only had two experienced defenders available, meaning midfielder Brad Lyons had to fill in at right-back and 19-year-old Oliver Bainbridge made his first-team debut 24 hours after arriving on loan from Sunderland.
“The circumstances in which we came into the game meant it was always going to be difficult,” manager Derek McInnes said.
“We don’t want to bleep on too much about that because obviously, it is a fall-out from being in Europe.
“We don’t have the biggest squad as it is, but when you’ve got five starters not in your team, a club like us feels that at times.”
On Bainbridge, McInnes said: “He battled away manfully. I said to him there that I made my debut in front of four or five thousand in a nothing game at the end of a season, but to have your first senior game at Celtic Park, I thought he came through it with a lot of credit.”
