Martin O’Neill has moved to reassure Reo Hatate, insisting he still rates the midfielder highly despite his recent absence from the starting XI at Celtic.
Hatate’s last start came over a month ago against Dundee United, and he has since found himself on the fringes.
He was an unused substitute in both the Scottish Cup semi-final win over St Mirren and the league victory against Falkirk. He was on the bench for the win over Dundee, and only got 17 minutes against St Mirren in the league.
The competition has intensified in midfield this year.
Arne Engels has returned from injury, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is influencing games, and Luke McCowan is getting plenty of minutes and a new contract, all while Callum McGregor and Nygren appear locked in as starters.
But O’Neill is not concerned.
“Reo is a fine footballer,” insisted O’Neill to RecordSport.
“I think two seasons ago he’d be one of the best in Scotland really. Midfield players tend to go through these little periods where you can’t do anything wrong. But you make three or four mistakes in a match in relatively quick succession and then you lose a bit of confidence and things like that.
“But he’ll be around at this minute. You’re hoping that the competition for places… you’ve got Arne coming back now from injury and you’ve got Alex trying to get up to speed all the time and making an impact.
“Even if he (Oxlade-Chamberlain) never kicked another ball for us, he’s won two matches for us by scoring the goals. Part of me is actually quite pleased that it’s been hard for players to pick up the speed here. Because sometimes people think (Scottish football) will be easy.”
So it seems there is no real concern; there’s just a lot of competition for places in the squad.
His quality is not in question, but his place in the team now has to be earned again.
Celtic’s strongest area of the pitch is probably his position, with a lot of quality players pushing for a starting spot.
You’d imagine that Reo might be eying up a move in the summer.
