Ange Postecoglou spoke to the mainstream media ahead of Celtic’s clash with Lee Johnson’s Hibernian tonight at Easter Road and was full of praise for Reo Hatate. The little Japanese midfielder was asked to deputise at right-back following a mini-crisis on that side of defence recently and was a revelation.
With Josip Juranovic given an extended break after his World Cup exploits with Croatia in Qatar this winter, and Anthony Ralston picking up an injury during the match with Livingston last week, Reo had to fill in for the time being. Well, it was not so much a fill in, as it was a starring role for the player who provided a masterclass at right-back.
Reo scored two goals on the day and was generally central to everything good Celtic did in the 4-1 victory. Ange Postecoglou was quick to recognise the contribution made by the former Kawasaki Frontale man today at his media conference and praised him not just for his two remarkable goals, but his all-round game that day. “Reo was great, said via the official Celtic website. “I thought, with the way it was set up with these kind of things, you can kind of disrupt the whole team or the easiest thing for us was to put a player there who maybe wasn’t familiar with the position.
“Now, Reo’s played left-back earlier in his career, which I knew from Japan, although he’s not a full-back, that’s for sure. But I thought whatever frailties we may have had defensively, he would give us plenty going the other way and make us even more dangerous. And credit to him, I thought even defensively he did a really good job. He kept his discipline and kept his position, and as soon as I told him the day before the match, he was fine, he was all-in. And apart from the goals, I thought it was a really good performance from him.”
The diversity of our current crop of stars means that many positions are interchangeable due to the attacking philosophy instilled in the team’s DNA by the Greek-Aussie. When quizzed about this particular aspect of his side, the boss concurred with the observation put forward. It certainly helps,” said the manager. “But the way we play, there are very few positions in our team where they’re fixed anyway, so playing in midfield positions for us, or even as a full-back, you get an idea of what goes on in midfield or the wide areas because they’re constantly moving in those areas anyway.
“It helps, but more importantly, Reo’s the kind of play who loves information, he loves getting feedback. He’s constantly asking for it. Sometimes we’ve got nothing to give but he’s still coming and knocking on Gavin Strachan’s door to see what else he can do. So I had no doubt that if we gave him the right information, he would execute it, but he’s not a full-back, he’s a midfielder and we’ll get him back in midfield, but at the moment he had to fill in and he did a good job.”
Paul Gillespie
