Brendan Rodgers lifts lid on special Reo Hatate Celtic coaching session as Japanese shines in win over Kilmarnock

Brendan Rodgers speaks with Reo Hatate after Celtic's 3-1 win over Kilmarnock.

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers revealed how a personal one-to-one coaching clinic with Reo Hatate helped bring out the best in the Japanese midfielder.

Hatate scored Celtic’s first goal in the 3-1 win over Kilmarnock and claimed an inadvertent assist for the second, scored by Luis Palma, in a man-of-the-match performance. Rodgers felt it was the first time that Hatate had “come alive for me” and hoped the player would continue to operate with that conviction.

He said: “I went through things with him the other day. If he wants to get to the highest level, there needs to be more intensity in his game. I took him through clips of his game, all without the ball. If you press the game well you will pass it well. But he took it on board, was very open and produced a fantastic performance today. That’s the level, you can’t switch the engine on and off.

“At the highest level against the best players, you have to turn up every week. That’s the challenge for him. He’s not young, he’s 25, but at that level of intensity, everything else is then natural for him. It’s my job as a coach to help him stay at that level. This was the first game that Reo has come alive for me. He has to press the game and when he is at that level, then he is intense with the ball. He scored a brilliant goal and he was superb.”

The victory sees Celtic stretch their lead at the top to seven points and Rodgers praised his players’ response following the disappointment of the Champions League loss to Lazio. He added: “I’m really pleased with the performance today off the back of the game during the week. We could all touch the pain of that result because our display didn’t merit it. But it’s about how you respond. You grieve for 24 hours, I sensed it from everyone, the players and the supporters. But you need to show strength of mentality to get back to winning again. We showed that today because we switched back to perform well today. The players deserve credit for that.”