Celtic star’s mystery absence explained by Ange Postecoglou

Overall, Celtic have done a wonderful job when it comes to signing new players and strengthening the squad since the arrival of Ange Postecoglou as manager. And we have seen a direct impact of  that on the pitch, as the club have take huge strides over the course of the campaign, winning the Scottish League Cup and are leading the Premiership title race as well as things stand.

That does not mean that every signing has proven to be a success though. There have been many who have failed to make an impact at Parkhead since arriving and a few of them have already been sent out on loan, like Liam Shaw and Osaze Urhoghide.

Another player who has not been able to make much of a mark at Celtic till now is Liam Scales, who arrived from Shamrock Rovers in the summer. At one point, he had seemed like the second choice left-back at the club but appears to have fallen down the pecking order since then.

Scales made his last appearance in the Premiership in January and he has not even made the bench since February. As reported by the Daily Record, when asked about him, Postecoglou said:

"“Liam is fine, he’s training well. But sometimes in terms of team balance, he hasn’t made the bench.“But he’s available and training well.“There are still a few areas we need to look at. We’re still rebuilding the squad and I want us to be stronger next year in terms of quality in the squad.“We’re in a better place than we were 12 months ago but we still have to strengthen and that’s what we’ll do.”"

Do Celtic need to strengthen at left-back in the summer?

Left-back has been viewed as an area of weakness for Celtic since Kieran Tierney left in the summer of 2019 to join Arsenal.

The club have tried several players there since then but nobody has been able to fill in the void left behind by Tierney. At this point of time, Greg Taylor is the starting left-back for Celtic and while he has put in some solid performances from time to time, overall, it does feel like it is an area where the club can improve further.

On the other hand, it does not look like Scales has much chance of rising up the pecking order in the near future. And at 23 years of age, he needs to be playing much more regularly than he is doing at the moment.