REO HATATE was poor in Sunday’s Glasgow Derby, there’s no getting away from that. However, it’s not that he’s a bad player, despite some fans suggesting so, he’s just physically and mentally fatigued.

The January signing is just off the back of playing a full season in his native country and representing Japan at the Olympic games. Of course, the player will be feeling the impact of this, that’s natural.

After about ten minutes into Sunday’s match, Hatate looked exhausted. From then on, he was poor. He was slack on the ball and was caught ball watching a few times. His attitude summed it up, you could see he was trying but his head was down. It was surprising to see the player emerge from the tunnel for the second forty-five.

Postecoglou reasoned why he still fields Hatate, explaining he wants to give the player as much exposure as he can, saying; [Football Scotland]

“To a certain extent. For them, Matty (O’Riley) is 21-years-old and for Reo this is his first sort of journey outside of his own country and it has new challenges.

“I have said all along that there is a relentlessness when you play for this football club and you can’t rest on what you did last week or even the last pass or the last action. It’s constant and it’s always there.

“But you are never going to build that into players if you shield them away from it.

“This year my thoughts were just to expose as many of our players to it as I could. Earlier in the year we were throwing guys in without even training and the expectations are still there, you have to perform.”

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