Rise of the street baller: Reo Hatate's Celtic quantum leap

The Champions League winner admires Hatate's natural enthusiasm for the game and his undoubted energy levels, which he knows are well suited to the Scottish game. 

But the former Hoops captain believes the 25-year-old 'street footballer' simply needs to learn to become a tad more street-wise if he is to excel on the grandest stage of them all.

In particular, Lambert recalls thinking the midfielder struggled to make an impact against Shakhtar Donetsk during the group stage encounter at Parkhead. It is, the 40-cap Scotland international says, a case of learning to play these games more with his brain than his athleticism that will make the difference.

"Hatate has bundles of energy and he seems to be able to cope with the demands of Scottish football," Lambert told The Celtic Way. "It's when he takes that step up to the Champions League level that it is an entirely different ball game altogether.

"I came up for the Shakhtar Donetsk game and he was running around here, there and everywhere so he got picked off many times. It was one of those games where he was getting the ball time and time again but he was giving it away constantly and he was getting a bit of a hard time.

"So what I noticed in that game was that he spent a lot of time just running around and - if I was an opposition player - then I would have done what they did and played one or two touches around him to pick him off. That's exactly what happened that night. Top players can do that to you."

The game Lambert references ended 1-1 and, for Hatate personally, it was the third group game in a row where he registered double figures for losses.

"I was at the game with my daughter and she turned and asked me who I thought Ange Postecoglou would take off when he was making his substitutions," Lambert added. "I told her that Hatate would be sacrificed and he was. When my daughter asked me why I said because he gave the ball away cheaply too many times.

READ MORE: The Celtic screamer that changed history, not owing Zidane's shirt and why he nearly left Paradise - Paul Lambert Interview

"He was also replaced because he was drained - knackered because he'd given that much. But although I want my players to give their all on the field they also need to learn to curtail when they can and cannot run to press the opposition.

"I couldn't fault Hatate's work rate or what he was trying to do - but his lack of experience at Champions League level most definitely showed that night. I understand he has only been playing senior football for a few years in Japan and Scotland and you could tell that.

"When you play at that elite level you have to play a lot more with your brain so you don't get picked off so Hatate needs to be a bit savvier when it comes to European football.

"He is young enough to learn all of this though - and it will come the more he is exposed to Champions League football. You can also make allowances for the fact that for Hatate, and many of the Celtic team, this was their first taste of action at the elite level of European football."

"I am sure Postecoglou will instil that in the Celtic players that the higher the level you go up you might have to conserve energy. You will not be allowed to charge around the way Hatate does in Scottish football because it is a different type of game altogether.

"I am not saying the game is slower - because Champions League football is really quick and slick - just that good players will pick you off with one or two touches at that level. They will bypass you with their technique."

Lambert is talking from real personal experience here as he recalls the chasing he got from a certain Milinko Pantic of Atletico Madrid when Borussia Dortmund faced the Spaniards on Champions League duty during the 1996-97 group stages.

He confessed that he dealt with his opponent well enough in Madrid when the Germans triumphed 1-0 in the Vicente Calderon but he got nowhere near the Serbian playmaker in the return match in the Westfalenstadion. Dortmund crashed to a 2-1 defeat with Pantic scoring what proved to be the winner.

"I remember playing against Pantic of Atletico and I handled him no problem in the Vicente Calderon," Lambert said. "We came back to Dortmund for the return game and I just could not get near him. All he did was play one and two touches around me - a bit like what happened to Hatate in the Shakhtar game.

"That was the difference. I was tearing my hair out as I could not get to grips with this guy and his one touch all the time. What a lesson that was. I couldn't get near the guy. What a chasing I got.

"Every time I got near him he banged it away easily with one touch. He was the number 10 for Atletico Madrid and they had Diego Simeone and Kiko playing for them at that time too. He was excellent. I always say that Pantic was one guy I couldn't get near."

It was, however, a lesson that stood Lambert in good stead. The education that the Scotsman received that night was put to good use in the Champions League final in 1997.

That evening, Lambert put the shackles on one of the greatest playmakers of them all and arguably the world's finest footballer at that time: Zinedine Zidane. It was crucial as unfancied Dortmund triumphed 3-1 over red-hot favourites Juventus to lift the famous silver trophy.

He added: "People always talk about the man-marking job I did on Zinedine Zidane, who was probably the greatest player in the world at that time, but it was the game against Pantic that really made me learn to sit up and take notice of what great players could do to you if you were not switched on or smart enough.

"There is a great thing called a mirror and if you can look in that and think you didn't play well then that's a start. You don't need anybody to tell you when you have not performed. I played in a great Borussia Dortmund team with some world-class players but sometimes you have got to hold your hands up and say, with a player like Pantic, I just couldn't get near and that was because of the level he was at.

"That is exactly what Hatate will need to learn it's not just about running and running and running because that leaves too many spaces. And it's not just him as the more Celtic as a team are exposed to and experience this kind of level then the better they will become at dealing with it.

"The level of player that you come up against in the Champions League is a drastic change from Scottish football. These players will sometimes play half-a-touch because they are that good. That's the beauty of it. That is the level that Hatate and Celtic want to be playing at every year. You have got to always aspire to be in that esteemed company.

"Let's not kid ourselves that was a really tough group [Real Madrid, Shakhtar and RB Leipzig] in anybody's language especially when you were tasting Champions League football for the first time. Hopefully Celtic can win the league and experience it all again. I am pretty sure they will all be better equipped to deal with it the next time around."

"But, as I say, I cannot fault Hatate for the way he has come into the Celtic team and made an impression, he's made his presence felt. He plays with great enthusiasm and it will surprise you but a lot of players do not have that natural enthusiasm for the game. You cannot take that away from him.

"He has a bit of the street footballer about him the way he pings passes and the five-a-side-like goal he scored against Motherwell at Fir Park where he dragged the ball from one foot to the other. These are all street footballer moves but the trick here is to become more streetwise on the park and play more intelligently, with your brain. That is what separates the truly great players from the good ones."

Despite the facets of his game that Lambert feels he needs to improve to scale up to Champions League level, he can fully understand why Hatate enjoys fan favourite status at Parkhead and is among the frontrunners for player of the season.

The ex-skipper reckons it's even more impressive given Hatate's career trajectory has been pretty meteoric so far in its own right.

"You have to remember that he has come from a totally different footballing culture and embraced Celtic and Scottish football," he said. "Hatate has had a quantum leap in terms of his career as he has gone from playing university football to J1 League football to Scottish Premiership football and then Champions League level in three years.

"That is a massive jump so he can be proud of where he is and what he has achieved. He is clearly enjoying it so the next logical step is to make a real dent in the Champions League.

"The likes of Callum McGregor can lend a helping hand and bring Hatate's game on n that regard. It is all part of his learning process.

"As he gets older he will get wiser and he has a great manager in the shape of Postecoglou to guide him on the path. He is also playing his club football in a great place.

"The challenge is to keep peaking and progressing and show everybody that both he and Celtic belong at Champions League level."

That's sage advice indeed - and from someone who thrived at the very top after a similarly rapid journey. Someone who won the thing, no less.