Throughout the season, Celtic fans have been perplexed by the Tomoki Iwata scenario.
Brendan Rodgers had a huge hole in the middle of his midfield after Reo Hatate’s injury against Atletico Madrid.
David Turnbull, Paulo Bernardo, and Odin Thiago Holm are just a few of the players the Celtic management has tried and tested; none of them have pleased the manager enough to maintain their spot in the squad.
After waiting on the sidelines for weeks, the Japanese midfielder Tomoki Iwata finally got his chance last night.
However, why did Rodgers wait so long to insert the 26-year-old? After Celtic’s 4-1 victory over Hibs, the manager provides an explanation.
Celtic’s Tomoki Iwata got hurt.
When the Celtic manager gave his evaluation of Iwata’s performance, he disclosed that the Japan international had been out for some time.
Rodgers stated, “Tomo was solid in midfield,” on BBC Sportsound. All we wanted was for him to walk in there and experience the joy of playing. He had been hurt the few times we were supposed to play him, which is why I wouldn’t have played him before. So I assumed he was reliable.
steady? According to the football statistics website Fotmob, Iwata was outstanding. Iwata scored a 7.3 and had an excellent 97% passing accuracy. For a player without match sharpness, not awful.
The 26-year-old won all nine of his aerial duels, had nine ball recoveries, and had two attempts on goal during the course of the entire ninety minutes. Iwata performed admirably for Celtic last night, and perhaps the fans can expect more of the same when they watch him play Kilmarnock at noon on Sunday.
