Rodgers welcomes back January 2022 signing ‘like a new player’

Brendan Rodgers welcomed Reo Hatate back into the fold as being ‘like a new player’ but added the rider of ‘when he’s really focussed’ when he discussed the midfielder’s 30 minute appearance against Dundee.

It was a frustrating and slightly laboured first half from the hoops with Hatate on the bench a month after suffering a calf injury during the 3-1 win over Aberdeen.

Celtic scored just one goal in the three full matches that Hatate missed with a 51st minute David Turnbull penalty breaking the deadlock against Dundee.

The hoops scored twice in seven minutes after Hatate came off the bench with the Japanese internationalist adding instant variety and creativity to the midfield.

With Odin Thiago Holm and Paulo Bernardo also available Rodgers isn’t short of midfield options but in Hatate the hoops boss has real quality on call.

After today’s win the Celtic boss told The Scotsman:

It’s brilliant as he’s like a new player to be honest as he’s missed a lot of playing time after being injured against Aberdeen. He’s the type of player we don’t have in terms of that dynamism in his game.

When he’s really focused and on it, he’s really very good. We wanted to give him half an hour just to feed himself back into the game. It was great to have him on the pitch as he’s a top-level player.

Feyenoord on Tuesday will present a very different challenge to Dundee, the natural instinct would be to set out more defensively but including Hatate would pose more questions defensively of the Dutch champions.