Liam Scales

When you watch the game back, Scales and CCV as a pairing were outstanding… Scales looks like he’s developed a lot over pre season.

We need at least 3 strong first team CB’s for the amount of games we’re playing this season … Scales, CCV and Trusty will all get a good amount of game time. Would actually be beneficial to rest CCV when we can and hope the other 2 slot in.

 

He will and should start v slovan Bratislava. Unbelievable performance considering the pressure he was under. If trusty wants his jersey he will have to perform..

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I think that might be a good plan actually, CCV has played a lot of games and has been carrying a toe injury, might be a good idea to give Trusty a run with Scales to see if they gel together, I know they are both left footed, but it wouldn't be the first time two left footed CB's played together successfully, and it would also help Taylor on the left flank more.

Scales was immense against them, he always is, and they get absolutely no change out of him.

 

I'm going to be eating a helluva lot of humble pie if he continues to play like this.

 

It just shows that a player doesn't always have to be a big money transfer from a top league to do the business.

In fact, I'd say we should be always looking for more players like this, and home grown players too like CalMac and Forrest, to augment the big money purchases.

 

Brendan Rodgers knows Liam Scales is a key member of his Celtic squad
The Ireland international starred as the Bhoys hammered Rangers in Sunday's Old Firm derby



Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers stressed the importance of Liam Scales to his squad after the defender stepped up with a big performance against Rangers following the arrival of fresh competition.

Scales delivered a strong display in central defence as the William Hill Premiership champions beat their rivals 3-0 on Sunday.

Celtic bought left-sided United States international centre-back Auston Trusty two days earlier and the former Sheffield United player will be looking to form a partnership with international team-mate Cameron Carter-Vickers.

But Scales' performance showed the Republic of Ireland international has no intention of relinquishing his place.

The 26-year-old looked like he was on his way out of Celtic following a season-long loan at Aberdeen but he broke into the first team 12 months ago following injuries to the likes of Carter-Vickers and Maik Nawrocki.

A clean sheet and exceptional display against Rangers at Ibrox set the tone for the season as Scales made 45 appearances to help Celtic to double glory as well as establishing himself in his national team.

Rodgers allowed Gustaf Lagerbiekle and Yuki Kobayashi to depart in the transfer window while Nawrocki looks likely to be on the fringes after an injury-hit first 12 months in Glasgow.

But Scales appears to have a central role to play.

"What's important is the squad," Rodgers said.

"I don't know where we would have been without Liam last year. When he came in and played away at Ibrox and all the challenges that he has had from a player that was maybe going to leave. He is such an important member of this squad.

"But we knew if we are going to go deep in competitions and challenge and be able to recover players, we had to get that quality into the building.

"Thankfully we have been able to do that. I asked for that with the club and the club has been first class at bringing players in and at the level we want. That will hopefully serve us well going forward."

 

i may be imagining it but i think he has looked a lot broader this season ,maybe hitting the weights

 

I give this guy a seriously hard time.

On Sunday, apart from a few of his inexplicably * passes to the opposition, he was immense and was easily his best game for us. His defending was very good indeed.

If he keeps that up I might just stop shouting “don’t give it to Scales!”

 

Rangers one weekend, England the next. Generations of Irish kids have dreamed of wearing the green against both of those sides. Liam Scales may well face the two of them in the space of just seven days.

He’s already halfway to a unique double.

Last Sunday brought a 3-0 home Old Firm win for Celtic in front of almost 60,000 people at Parkhead. Now he’s counting down the hours to the Nations League Group B opener against the oldest of enemies at the Aviva Stadium.

“Yeah, it's not happened before that a player will have Rangers one week and England the next. It's as good as it gets. Hopefully we can do as well as we did on the weekend against Rangers, bring that in to Ireland against England.”



These are games that give rise to deeply embedded emotions but there’s more scope for that on the terraces than on the field. Scales talks about the need to maintain discipline and keep 11 men on the pitch regardless of the opposition and he’s right.

“I don’t think we need more motivation than just playing for your country in the first place,” he explained, “but there is that extra there for the public, and you know how much it means to a lot of people.

“I’ll use it a little bit but it won’t be too different to a normal game. You have to keep it the way you usually do. You don’t want to change too many things in the way you get yourself up for a game, so it will be minor things.”



The presence of Lee Carsley, Declan Rice and Jack Grealish in the away dressing-room is an obvious talking point this week but then this is a rivalry that has long catered for blurred lines when it comes to loyalties and lineage.

The Republic has profited from a rich seam of first and second-generation Irish players with half-a-dozen of the current squad of 23 born and bred in the UK. Scales himself is another example of the ties that bind across the Irish Sea.


Born in Wicklow, he has played Gaelic football and cut his teeth playing in the League of Ireland. He is able to give interviews ‘as gaeilge’ having extended his studies of the language through to third level - and he plays for Celtic, of course.

He also has an English dad, not that loyalties will be divided on Saturday.

“He is fully invested in my career for so many years now that it’s not even a choice for him. He used to bring us to the Irish games when we were kids and he has followed Irish football longer than me. That won’t be a difficult choice for him.”

Heimir Halgrímsson has some obvious gaps in his squad as he gets to grips with his new job. Centre-back isn’t one of them but Scales’ left foot and versatility are strong cards to play as the pen is poised to start writing this new chapter.

So is his form.

Celtic have won all five games so far this season and they have yet to concede a goal. Scales has played in every one of them. He is a keystone in the team when, 12 months ago, he was probably seventh-choice and standing with one foot beyond the exit door.

Injuries and other vagaries fell his way at the time and he was good enough to take full advantage.

A full Ireland debut came against Greece in November and Brendan Rodgers was quoted this week declaring that, if he wasn’t the “sexiest” of players, then he was one of the most crucial at the Scottish club.

How did he feel about that?

“I take a bit of offence to it! No, if you read the article the headline was kind of taken out of context a bit. He was talking about the players from Ireland or Scotland or the UK in general: the fans don’t find them as glamorous as signing a player from Spain or Italy.

“He meant it in a good way. It was a compliment and I’ll take it and I know exactly what he means. Sometimes fans get more excited about players from elsewhere, and that’s football, but to hear that I am a crucial part of it is brilliant.”

Domestic dominance in Scotland shows no sign of abating and a Champions League draw that threw up games against the likes of Slovan Bratislava, Young Boys, Bruges and Dinamo Zagreb offers a tantalizing chance of rare European joy to go with it.

It’s three years since he was first called into a senior Ireland squad but, while his stock has risen appreciably in Glasgow, there is still a sense of the 26-year old finding his niche in the international game.

“The first squad I was in, I had just finished playing for Shamrock Rovers. It’s a great club and a great experience for me, but I’ve played 100 games at a different level and that has improved me a lot.”

 

I was today years old when I found out scales was 26

 

Was solid next to CCV

 

Was good until his distribution late on got really careless..

Easy passes out wide telegraphed and missed and an easy ball over the top he failed to get any height on when we were under pressure..

 

Thought he was very good until the last few minutes where he looked tired and made a few silly mistakes. Deserves his place for Wednesday though.

 

Thought he looked fairly solid today again tbh until last few mins where we were under the cosh a bit

 

Solid again just his distribution is frustrating.

 

Thought he was solid and his distribution was fine to be honest. As others have said, couple of dodgy passes right towards the end but overall was decent.

 

Our best player today for me. Not that there was a lot of competition but thought he was vital first half as CCV looked a bit out of sorts.

 

He's getting better and better I think. Massive difference to the player we saw during the early stages of last season.

I still think the long-term plan is to get Trusty alongside CCV, but at the moment Scales is making it very difficult to drop him.

 

The massive difference is he’s got a settled partnership with a very good partner. Last season he was needing to perform heroics next to a revolving door of Nawrocki, Lagerbielke, Nat Phillips and Stephen Welsh. One point I’m sure we had Iwata there as well.