Before Celtic travelled to Ross County on Saturday Brendan Rodgers challenged Liam Scales to perform well now that he’s entering a new stage of the season. He delivered in a big way.
For a large chunk of the campaign, Scales has been something of a default pick in the Celtic defence due to several injuries. That is certainly how he got his opportunity under Rodgers to begin with.
However, as the Celtic boss pointed out in pre-match comments, it’s one thing performing when you know your place in the team is safe and it’s another when you know there is pressure on you from other squad members.
Chris Sutton suggested in his Daily Record column today that he has concerns about Celtic’s summer signings and that he would have expected Gustaf Lagerbielke or Maik Nawrocki to have displaced Scales in the team by now, but as was shown in the 3-0 win at Dingwall, the Irishman is simply undroppable at the moment.
Liam Scales impressive in both halves for Celtic vs Ross County
The 25-year-old was again one of Celtic’s top performers – and not just in a defensive sense. From the centre-back position, he was one of the most creative players on the pitch.
Scales created three chances across the 90 minutes, with two clipped balls into David Turnbull and Kyogo Furuhashi particularly difficult for the county defence to deal with. Both players could have scored on another day. His expected assist number of 0.74 for the match is impressive for his position.
He also managed to get into position for 5 shots and, let’s not forget, arguably shouldn’t have had his first-half finish disallowed for a Hyeongyu Oh foul.
The defender’s distribution was accurate with 93% pass completion, 21 of which were progressed into the final third of the pitch. Scales was effective in pinning County back and taking advantage of their ten-men status.
Coupled with strong defensive work, on today’s showing, you can understand why Rodgers is in no rush to drop him to the bench.
Tougher tests are ahead, of course. He will have a much more difficult night on Tuesday away to Atletico and perhaps that will be the biggest indication of how far he has come, or not. Nonetheless, you can’t say he isn’t earning his place in the starting eleven.
Nawrocki, Lagerbielke, Phillips and Welsh are going to have a job on their hands to force their way into regular contention without a drop-off in Scales form.
In other news, Brendan Rodgers reacts as Celtic surge 8 points clear; addresses disallowed goals, Palma impact.
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