The entire Celtic team has come in for some strong criticism so far after their abject performance against Hearts and Pat Bonner now directs more towards Reo Hatate.
Bonner was livid with Celtic’s result and performance against Hearts and we told earlier how the Hoops hero got his scattergun out and sprayed all but two of Brendan Rodgers’ players.
The former Celtic goalkeeper was strong in his assessment of Celtic’s Tynecastle defeat as he rhymed off a number of players who were simply not good enough.
And now, it’s Reo Hatate who is now told that despite his undoubted talent, the Japanese midfielder is simply not doing enough for Celtic this season.
- READ MORE: What Brendan Rodgers admits about fan protests as action against the board continued at Hearts
Bonner tells Reo Hatate he must ‘work hard in training’ to end Celtic slump
Hatate has been like a man down for a number of weeks and against Hearts at Tynecastle, he was virtually posted missing again.
And Bonner has now told him what he must do if Hatate wants to get out of the slump he is currently in at Celtic.
Bonner told BBC Radio Scotland, “The balance of the team is missing. For me, absolutely missing compared to what they had in the past.
“And there’s certain players who are not playing, and how do you get to get back to the way they were playing?
“Hatate, for example, he kept giving the ball away on numerous occasions. I’m not having a go because I think he’s a really good technical player and a quality player, but he’s going through a really, really difficult time at the moment.
“How do you get out of that? You’ve got to work hard, you’ve got to put it in training. You’ve got to try to find a way for the player themselves. You can’t do it for them.”
Reo Hatate’s rank-rotten Celtic stats vs Hearts
Hatate has undoubtedly been one of Celtic’s best players since he joined the club in December 2021 but over the last twelve months or so, he has not been anywhere near his best.
And against Hearts on Sunday, Fotmob rated Hatate as one of Celtic’s worst players.
- Minutes: 60
- Rating: 5.9
- Goals: 0
- Assists: 0
- Total shots: 0
- Accurate passes: 21/24 (88%)
- Chances created: 1
- Touches: 28
- Touches in opposition box: 1
- Passes into final third: 2
- Accurate crosses: 0/1 (0%)
- Accurate long balls: 1/2 (50%)
- Tackles: 0
- Blocks: 0
- Clearances: 1
- Interceptions: 1
- Recoveries: 1
Those stats make totally woeful reading and to put Hatate’s performance into perspective, if it wasn’t for Dane Murray having a shocker, he would have been Celtic’s worst player on that Tynecastle pitch.
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