96 touches, 100% ground duels won: 25-year-old Celtic player surely nailed on to start against Atletico now

Celtic’s 4-1 win over Hearts on Sunday meant that all the media attention and headlines went on the players who found the back of the net.

In particular, Matt O’Riley and Kyogo Furuhashi both took their lion’s share of the spotlight due to O’Riley’s superb performance and Kyogo scoring his 60th goal for the club.

So it’s understandable that performances from other players at Tynecastle flew under the radar over the past couple of days.

Well, here at TBR Celtic we aim to put that right today. There were two other players who were both outstanding against Hearts on Sunday and we aim to give them the credit they are both due. Here is the first.

Liam Scales had another defensive masterclass for Celtic
The Irish defender is enjoying a rich vein of form at Celtic right now. Scales has become an integral part of Brendan Rodgers‘ side this season after stepping up during an injury crisis.

Against Hearts, Scales was imperious again. The defender played out another full 90 minutes where he won three out of three ground duels against his opponents.

Not only that, Scales also blocked three shots on target and made three important clearances and one interception.

With 96 touches of the ball, the 25-year-old defender had a passing success rate of 81% which, by all accounts, is lower than his season average of 88% but is still pretty decent for a defender.

All the talk last week was about Maik Nawrocki returning to training and whether or not he will be pitched back into the side at Scales’ expense. Not for me.

The Irishman has been superb for Celtic and no matter how good Nawrocki looks in training, after his Tynecastle performance, Scales must start against Atletico Madrid tomorrow.

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