Celtic ace who had 164 touches has silenced doubters

Celtic moved five points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership table with an emphatic 5-0 victory over Ross County at Parkhead on Saturday.

Aberdeen conceded a 96th-minute equaliser, having taken the lead in the 95th minute, against Hibernian in their match to draw 3-3, which opened the door for the Hoops to extend their lead.

The Scottish giants took full advantage of their rivals slipping up and now have a comfortable lead at the top of the division, after they swept Ross County aside with ease.

Brendan Rodgers decided to make a host of changes to his starting XI after Wednesday night’s 1-1 draw with Club Brugge in the Champions League, to keep his squad fresh and hand opportunities to other players.

Liam Scales, Paulo Bernardo, Alex Valle, Luke McCowan, James Forrest, and Adam Idah all came in from the start to showcase what they can offer to the team as starters.

McCowan was the star of the show, with one goal, three assists, and eight key passes, but fellow central midfielder Bernardo also took his chance to impress.

Paulo Bernardo’s performance against Ross County

The Portugal U21 international was selected over both Arne Engels and Reo Hatate to start in the middle of the park alongside Callum McGregor and McCowan.

It was an opportunity for him to show the manager that he deserves more minutes on the pitch moving forward, and the former Benfica starlet certainly presented his case well.

Bernardo scored the third goal of the game in the first half by reacting well to the ball dropping for him from Daizen Maeda’s deflected cut-back, firing into the far corner with a composed finish.

As you can see in the table above, the Portuguese dynamo also created four chances and one ‘big chance’ for his teammates throughout his 90 minutes on the pitch, but was not rewarded with an assist for his efforts.

The 22-year-old whiz, who earned a Sofascore rating of 8.2, was also strong out of possession with four duels won out of six, which shows that he was a solid performer for the Scottish giants with his work on and off the ball.

There was another player who came in from the cold to outperform Bernardo against Ross County on Saturday, though, and that man was central defender Liam Scales.

Liam Scales’ performance against Ross County

The Ireland international was an unused substitute against Club Brugge in midweek and for the 4-1 win over Hearts in the Premiership last weekend, as Cameron Carter-Vickers and Auston Trusty were selected as the preferred centre-back pairing.

Rodgers brought the left-footed titan back in from the start in this latest top-flight clash and Scales grasped his opportunity with both hands, putting in a fantastic performance at the heart of the defence.

The former Aberdeen loanee opened the scoring with a brilliant glancing header off the crossbar and in from McCowan’s corner, before turning provider with a great clipped pass over the top of the defence to assist the Scottish midfielder for the second goal.

Scales, who earned a staggering 9.3 rating on Sofascore, made a huge impact at the top end of the pitch to open the game up for Celtic, by directly contributing to the first two goals, and that allowed the Hoops to go on and win the match with ease.

As you can see in the table above, the Irish colossus enjoyed a terrific game in possession, with a whopping 164 touches and 145 passes completed.

To go along with his goal and assist, Scales completed 94% of his passes and was strong defensively by winning the majority of his duels for Celtic, and these statistics show that he was even better than Bernardo – by being involved in more goals and winning more duels.

It was a huge all-round performance from the Ireland international and one that, perhaps, he needed to silence some of his doubters after some struggles for club and country at times this season.

Liam Scales’ troubles this season

The Ireland international has not always been the most appreciated member of the Celtic squad. At the end of the 2023/24 campaign, The Celtic Star published an article in defence of the centre-back and claimed that he had become the ‘whipping boy’ of a certain section of the fanbase.

That particular article suggested that fans had been getting on the defender’s back, despite his inclusion in the PFA Scotland Team of the Year, and some of his struggles at the start of this season did not help that narrative.

Scales gave away a penalty in the 2-1 win over Ross County earlier this season, handballing a cross that came into the box, and made an error that directly led to a shot in a 2-0 win over Kilmarnock.

He also played the full 90 minutes of the 7-1 defeat to Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League and lost three of his four ground duels, whilst being dribbled past twice without making a single tackle against the German giants.

As you can see in the table above, Scales has made plenty of appearances in all competitions for Celtic this season and has not made a string of huge errors, with the aforementioned games against Dortmund, Kilmarnock, and Ross County the outliers.

The centre-back did, however, get sent off for Ireland in his most recent outing before Saturday’s game, as he was booked twice in a 5-0 defeat to England.

However, any doubters questioning his inclusion in the starting line-up ahead of Trusty for the clash with Ross County were silenced, as Scales put on a masterclass with his performance this weekend.