Reo Hatate

Close friend of the family was a huge hun her whole life, season ticket holder with her dad growing up and all the way into her 40s.

She was also fiercely anti-union, hated the British empire and was really involved in the Scottish arts in quite radical circles.

Anyway, all this to say when she was about 50 it all hit her and she completely abandoned the huns. Didn't go over to us or anything, but just doesn't have a team anymore.

If you don't subscribe to their bigotry and * it astonishes me if you can't at some point take a step back and realise what it is you're supporting.

 

Same here, actually thought their press was half arsed, like they never bought into it.

 

His work rate doesn't get enough credit. We can talk about his skills all day but the guy goes box to box.

 

A run of Man-of-the-Match performances by Reo Hatate last month were further rewarded when the Japanese playmaker was today (Friday) presented with the cinch Premiership Player of the Month award for February.

The Hoops with Hatate went through the month on a winning run with three SPFL victories, Livingston (3-0), St Johnstone (4-1) and Aberdeen (4-0), as well as keeping that going outside of the games not under the auspices of the award – the home 5-1 win over St Mirren in the Scottish Cup and, of course, last weekend’s victorious 2-1 win over Rangers at Hampden in the League Cup final.

Hatate played a crucial role in each of those wins as well as hitting memorable doubles in consecutive games – St Mirren and Aberdeen – and he has been a standout performer, not only in February, but throughout this season by playing a major part in Celtic’s nine-point lead at the top of the cinch Premiership going into this weekend’s schedule.

 

Great point. In that game against Aberdeen he was everywhere.

 

Surprised Beale didn't get it tbh

 

Covered so much ground in the cup final also. He's came a long way from the guy that was dead on his feet after 50 minutes last season.

 

Never in doubt..

Watching back our first goal from the weekend as well he gets his body in the way by the halfway line and does a turn and completely does their midfielder. It opens up all the space..

I'm sure someone can do a wee gif of it in here? Was class..

 

It was truly outstanding. Summed up what he’s about really. Skill, pace, vision, strength & tenacity.

 

The very one

Looks better from the other angle but what a player..

Hardman Lundstram

 

Making the daft * look dumb again


A wonderful player is Reo

 

Is Reo the "10 years younger" Lubo we all craved for?

 

Scary how good this lad will be when he's in his prime at 27-28. Give him a well paid long term contract because we will regret it otherwise if we don't. The guy is insanely good and what people need to remember is that he have only been a pro for a couple of years, so isnt even close to the level he will get to.

Give him a 5-6 year deal Now.

 

Well deserved wee man. To think majority of our top players are in there early to mid 20's and are still a year or two away from being in their prime is a scary prospect for the league if we can keep them. Reo has only been pro for about 3-4 year his trajectory of improvement has been rapid can only imagine what he'll be like next season.

 

Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou has declared that midfielder Reo Hatate has "gone to another level" over the last four weeks.

The 25-year-old, who was awarded Scottish Premiership Player of the Month for February, scored four goals and provided one assist across all competitions recently.

He was also influential as the Hoops defeated rivals Rangers 2-1 in the League Cup final at Hampden.

And the Australian has lavished praise on the Japanese playmaker, even claiming he can go up "another couple of levels".

Speaking to Sky Sports, he said:"He's had a good year. When he came in 12 months ago, fair to say he made an impact straight away, but you know we kind of knew it would be a tough sort of initiation for him because he'd come off the back of a full Japanese league season.

"In contrast, this year with the benefit of having a good preseason with us he's just been really strong and consistent all year.

"I think over the last month he's just gone to another level and I certainly believe there's there's another couple of levels in him as a footballer.

"And you know, he's enjoying it and he's making more of an impact, which is great."

 

We were speaking to Reo Hatate after his Player of the Month award. He talks a lot about how he constantly wants to improve. You've mentioned the fact that Gavin Strachan is tracking after every game wanting him to improve. We can see his quality on the pitch as well and when you total all of that up is he a real dream to work with as a manager?

Yeah, Reo is very determined to be the best footballer can be. He's not on his own though. Like I think this whole group has those characteristics and I think that helps somebody like Reo because he's coming to an environment that suits that mindset. Sometimes you can have that mindset but you go into an environment that doesn't allow that to nourish but here, he's walked into an environment where he's got like-minded people around him who also want to be the best they can be. They are a very ambitious group. The group collectively is ambitious. The coaching staff is ambitious and so I think guys like Reo can thrive within that. And you know, I think it's fair to say he came in last year in January and he made an impact straight away. There's no doubt that the first six months were going to be tough for him. Coming off a J1 League season. But this year, after a good pre-season for him, he's been really strong all year and he's obviously found another level, I think since probably the World Cup break and you know my belief that there's another couple of levels in him at least and knowing Reo his mindset is that he'll definitely get there.

Sticking with Reo, I think you mentioned during the World Cup that if there's one area to improve his game it would be to increase his numbers in the final third, the assists and goals. He's certainly done that in recent months. How has he, from your perspective, gone about doing that?

Again, I think he is constantly working on aspects of his game that he thinks he needs to be better at and the feedback we give him so whatever that feedback is, then he'll take that on board and go and work on them in training. I mean, there are no magic formulas here. It's not about flicking a switch, it's just hard work and he's prepared to put that hard work in. And also understand and receive feedback in the right way. Sometimes with players, you give them the feedback and they don't really address the areas they need to address because sometimes it's easier to fall back on what you're already good at. He's constantly looking for gaps that there may be in his game, and then our role is to give him the right kind of feedback to go and work out it. He goes and works at it. He just works really hard at it and has a real focus on it. And that's why I think whatever level he reaches by the end of this year. He'll come back in pre-season next year looking to take his game to the next level and our role within that is to guide him in the right way.