FOOTBALL may be a universal language, but it also helps when you can actually communicate with your teammates.

In saying that, Reo Hatate seems to be managing just fine at Celtic so far, despite admitting to some language barriers between himself and the majority of the Celtic players both on and off the field.

The 22-year-old has announced himself on the Scottish football scene in scintillating fashion since his move from Kawasaki Frontale at the beginning of the transfer window.

In his debut against Hibernian he ran the show and earned the man-of-the-match award, and he followed that up by scoring a screamer against Hearts at Tynecastle on Wednesday night – a goal he describes as the best of his life so far. Not bad for starters.

The worrying thing for Scottish opposition may be that Hatate feels there is much more to come not only from himself and his fellow arrivals from Japan – Kyogo, Daizen Maeda and Yosuke Ideguchi – once they are fluent in the local lingo, but the entire Celtic team once they are all entirely on the same wavelength.

“In terms of the goal, I am very happy with the goal,” Hatate said. “I have scored in my second game and I am relieved. It’s the best goal [I’ve scored].

“I am not playing with just me, I am playing with all of my team mates. We will have to improve and communicate with each other to make it better.

“In terms of the game [against Hearts], we have times when we can keep ourselves, but there are times when we can’t keep our discipline. We will have to talk and communicate to each other within the team, make it better and improve.

“In terms of communication there are a lot of things to do, but on the pitch I can express myself in football so I am okay. But, again, in communication I would like to improve and have better communication.”

Perhaps that problem in communicating goes some way to explaining the loss of shape or discipline that Celtic seem to be suffering from at the moment when it comes to the second half of matches.

After impressive showings in the opening 45 minutes against Hibernian, Alloa and Hearts over the past fortnight, their level has dropped dramatically after the interval to allow their opposition some hope, though it hasn’t cost them in either points or cup progression so far.

On Wednesday night, though, maybe it was simply the intimidating nature of a raucous Tynecastle that caught a few of the new arrivals off guard, with debutant Matt O’Riley and now Hatate admitting that the atmospheres in Scotland are somewhat different to what they are used to.

“I have enjoyed every game a lot,” Hatate said. “The environment of the stadium is very hot and I was sometimes very scared of that.”

That point may have been somewhat over-egged in translation, given the fearless nature of his play on Wednesday evening and with Hatate speaking through an interpreter. But the intimidation that comes with being a Celtic player is far from limited to the stands.

Celtic’s Japanese contingent have already found that to their cost, with Kyogo on the receiving end of some heavy treatment at the hands of Scottish defenders since his arrival in Glasgow, and Yosuke Ideguchi already on the treatment table after a crunching tackle from Alloa’s Mouhamed Niang on Saturday evening at the Indodrill.

The physical nature of the game here being something of a culture shock to Hatate may have been easy to predict, but it is a specific physical attribute that players here possess that has caught the midfielder out unawares; their long legs.

“The reach and the toughness is very different,” he said. “They are tall and long and have long feet.

“I consider that I am also a physical player, but I still have to improve to compete in this league.

“This is why I have to work harder in the training and improve.”

They may not yet know each other all that well, or even have had the ability to hold a conversation, but the seemingly instant simpatico relationship between Hatate and impressive debutant O’Riley at Tynecastle was an exciting feature of the Celtic attacking performance.

Again, this is a partnership that Hatate feels will only improve in time once they have had a chance to train and play together more often.

“With Matt we don’t have enough time to train,” he said.

“We have to learn about each other during the game. But I think I can play very well with him. He also tried to utilise me efficiently.”

Such has been the success of Hatate since his arrival, that Celtic supporters are now eyeing up their crunch clash against Rangers next Wednesday night with rather greater relish than they may have been a week or two ago, given the long list of absentees they will still be carrying.

Hatate may not yet be able to converse in English, but when it comes to fielding questions about that Rangers game, he is clearly fluent in the football school of media management.

“We have the next match before that so I am just concentrating on that,” he said. Playing with a straight bat, it seems, is also a universal language.