Celtic’s Reo Hatate has been named as the SPFL Star Man for the first weekend of the season, after his Man of the Match performance at Celtic Park on Sunday afternoon against Kilmarnock.
Hatate opened the scoring for Celtic in the 4-0 victory and was outstanding throughout alongside his midfield partner Matt O’Riley. The official SPFL website described Hatate’s performance as follows:
‘Celtic’s top flight title defence got off to the perfect start with a 4-0 win over Kilmarnock. The champions managed 33 shots on goal, had 83 per cent possession and scored twice in each half. Hatate got the first and was thoroughly dominant in the centre of the park. He is the star man in this team.’
🌟 @CelticFC‘s Reo Hatate is the Star Man in the first @WilliamHill SPFL #TOTW of 2024/25!
Full team➡️ https://t.co/MvtTDLF7PT pic.twitter.com/huDdrCfTFV
— SPFL (@spfl) August 6, 2024
Brendan Rodgers too was raving about Hatate’s performance against Hatate and indeed over the course of the pre-season. The Celtic manager said this about the Japanese midfielder, as reported by Daily Record.
“I think that what I’ve seen over the course of pre-season, he’s top class. I didn’t see the player that I hoped to see at the beginning of last season, for whatever reason. I was aware of him and I’d seen him play and I liked what I’d seen. But he never really got going through pre-season last year. And not to what I was wanting. He got injured and then it was really broken for him.
“He had little spells where he came into the team, but not consistently. But he’s come back pre-season now and, obviously, how the season ended, there’s that confidence. He knows I like him as a player and he knows what I want from him as a player. I’d hoped I could see that last season, but it doesn’t matter. He’s here now and he’s been absolutely brilliant since his comeback. So I’m really pleased for him.”
