Celtic continued their impressive pre-season preparations for the new campaign with an excellent 4-3 win over Premier League giants Manchester City in the USA.
The Hoops have now scored 15 goals in their four pre-season matches, winning three and drawing one, ahead of their opening day clash with Kilmarnock at Parkhead next month.
Brendan Rodgers will be delighted with the result against Pep Guardiola's side and take plenty of positives from it, including two goals from Nicolas Kuhn and strikes from Kyogo Furuhashi and Luis Palma.
However, one player who let himself down in America and should now fear about his future as a starter for the Bhoys is central defender Liam Scales.
Liam Scales' howler against Man City
The Irish dud was caught out for City's first goal as he found himself too far away from Nico O'Reilly in the box and then failed to sort his feet out to clear Oscar Bobb's deflected effort, from O'Reilly's pass, off the line.
Maximo Perrone's goal for the Cityzens, their second of the night, also came from Scales failing to be close enough to his man as the defender gave the Argentine ace far too much time inside the box to pick out the bottom corner.
The former Aberdeen loanee was yet again at fault for the Premier League champions' third and final goal of the night as he allowed Erling Haaland to get the run on him for a header at the back post.
Scales, who was handed a match rating of 4/10 by CelticWay writer Ryan McGinlay, lost 100% (4/4) of his duels as he found the physicality of the game too much to handle.
Why Liam Scales should fear for his position
The Ireland international should now fear for the future of his position in the starting XI as Celtic have been linked with multiple centre-backs this summer.
Bournemouth's Chris Mepham and Burnley's Dara O'Shea are both reported to be transfer targets for the Scottish giants, with the former said to be valued at £8m and the latter set to cost a 'major' bid.
This suggests that they would be expensive additions who could come in with a view to them improving the starting XI immediately, which could spell trouble for Liam Scales.
Appearances
34
Tackles + interceptions combined per game
2.3
Dribbled past per game
0.4
Clearances per game
3.9
Duel success rate
63%
As you can see in the table above, Scales did win the majority of his duels in the Scottish Premiership last season but there are also parts of defending that do not show on a stats sheet.
The first two Man City goals, for example, would not go down as him losing a duel or making a mistake but they both came through errors in judgement or positioning from the Irishman.
Celtic could land dream signing for McGregor in swoop for £6m star
The Hoops are reportedly in the mix to sign the American dynamo this summer.
ByDan EmeryJul 23, 2024
Those kind of mistakes may be why Rodgers has been looking at central defenders to potentially come in and bolster the squad, and more performances like the one on Wednesday night from Scales will leave him open to being dropped from the side to make way for a Mepham or an O'Shea.
