Pundit ‘wowed’ by one thing he saw Hatate do in Celtic win against Hibernian
Alan Hutton was dazzled by Reo Hatate’s passing ability during the midfielder’s Celtic debut against Hibernian on Monday.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, the former Rangers defender hailed the 24-year-old’s creative spark in the middle of the park.
Hatate was named among the starting XI against Hibs (17 January) and lasted 74 minutes on his debut.
His performance earned him the man of the match award.
Hutton admitted Hatate’s energy and work rate was exceptional.
However, he insisted the midfielder’s vision was the highlight of his first appearance at Parkhead.
Hutton told Football Insider’s Russell Edge: “Hatate, I thought, was excellent in midfield. He can see a pass and he covered every single blade of grass.
“For me not knowing much about him, to see him in one game, he looked really impressive.
“You look at the likes of McGregor, they rely really heavily on him. He’s got a big workload, he needs to be creative.
“When you’ve got someone like Hatate, it looks like he’s got great energy. I know we only saw it really intense for 45 minutes but he’s not played a lot of football in the last month. It’s understandable.
“He showed enough that, moving forward, he can do that job no problem. What I was really impressed with wasn’t his running ability and the way he closed down. It was the passes that he was seeing.
“There was one in the second half, on the right-hand side, where he fired it into the striker. Wow, nobody else could have done that, and seen that pass like he did. He’s got that creative side as well.”
Hatate joined Celtic from Kawasaki Frontale this month.
He also has four caps for Japan to his name.
In other news, Tottenham and Wolves in race to sign Celtic rising star.