ANY eagle-eyed Celtic supporters who have stayed late celebrating after matches over the past year or so may have noticed that even after putting in a shift in the engine room, Reo Hatate can invariably be found jogging around the pitch as his teammates hit the showers.

The red-hot midfielder is constantly striving for any edge at all that can improve him as a player, and he has revealed that his recent spurt of goalscoring form has come from searching out manager Ange Postecoglou for advice on where he could be contributing more to his team.

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“I went to Ange Postecoglou and asked, ‘Where is the area I should improve?’” Hatate said. “And he told me that in the attacking part of my game I needed to improve the quality more.

“That is what I am doing right now, and I think enhancing those qualities are giving me the results right now and giving me more goals and assists.”

A close relationship with coach Gavin Strachan is also helping to drive those enhancements Hatate is making to his game.

“He has been a really big help for me after the practice, showing me the videos after the matches and telling me which part was good, which part was bad,” he said.

“It is definitely helping me out. We have good conversations between us and we also have exclusive practice only with the midfielders, so those are definitely contributing to the position I am in right now.” 

That position as one of the country’s top midfielders – if not the best, on current form – was underlined yesterday as Hatate picked up the Premiership player of the month award for February.

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Such has been his form since arriving in Scotland last January though, that there was widespread surprise when he failed to make the Japan squad for the World Cup prior to Christmas, with Daizen Maeda the only member of Celtic’s Japanese contingent to make the cut.

He admits that the omission from Hajime Moriyasu’s final group hurt, and that is partly driving his quest for improvement.

“Definitely, missing the finals was a disappointment, and I think that experience has raised me up,” he said.

“In terms of a call-up for the March matches, I don’t have any clue. I’m not really sure if I’ll be called up, so right now the focus is on Celtic.”