The central defender has been a stalwart at the heart of a Martin O’Neill backline that, in over 630 minutes of open play football in the Scottish Premiership, has yet to concede a goal.
O’Neill clearly has a soft spot for Scales. In behind-the-scenes footage of his dressing room farewell speech at the end of his initial interim stint earlier this season, the Celtic manager singled out his countryman for praise. Then, upon his return, O’Neill thrust Scales straight back into the starting lineup.
The 27-year-old played his part in the weekend’s 4-0 win over Dundee United and completed 90 minutes once more as Celtic emerged as 1-0 victors from a blustery Falkirk Stadium on Wednesday evening.
Across his two spells this campaign, O’Neill now has seven domestic wins from seven, and nine from 10 in all competitions.
“He’s been successful since he’s been here this season,” Scales said of his manager. “I think we feel confident under him. Even though performances haven’t all been at our top level, we’ve managed to pull through games and get results and keep clean sheets. I suppose that’s been the main thing that’s got us those seven wins.
“I think him and the coaching staff, that is probably what they felt they needed to bring in the first time around [defensive solidity]. We went through a couple of bad results, they came in and they knew we had the ability and the players here to win games. It was just about getting confidence. It’s almost like a carbon copy of coming back in and needing to lift us. It’s just the way they approach training, they fill you with confidence every day. The way they speak to you, it’s really helped a lot.
“I think all of the lads do have a good relationship with him. It’s funny, he’ll say a good thing about you and then follow it up with a bad thing. You take it in good spirits. I suppose there’s the Irish connection there as well. I think as a centre-half, if you defend well and defend first before anything else, I think that is really what he wants. I suppose you know what you have to do to keep him happy, which is a good thing.”
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Between O’Neill’s spells, Nancy, who was sacked at the beginning of last week, implemented a complicated 3-4-2-1 system. Scales often played as a left-sided centre-back in a defensive three and was asked to overlap and contribute in the final third.
“I just feel like in the last few years, the majority of my games have been played as a centre-half in a back four,” he continued. “When you’re asked to do something different, it can be difficult, especially at the start. I really didn’t have time to develop into that role I was being asked to do. I’m just more used to playing in that position.
“Even though I’ve played in a back three before at different clubs, having played for a couple of years here in the same system and having the same sort of tactics, I suppose I’m comfortable in that.
“I think it [Nancy’s system] involved a lot more running than what I had been doing. Personally for me, and this isn’t going to be the same for everyone, I felt that as I got tired in games, it was harder to bring quality in that final third.
“I haven’t played that high up as much. Especially when your legs are tired, because you’re doing more running, more covering in that back three, the fatigue can take away quality. For me, I felt like that is what happened with me.
“I felt good in the first half of the cup final [vs St Mirren], but as the game developed, I nearly ran out of steam. I think that was just out of not being used to playing in that position and doing more running at high speed and covering more distance. It’s not an excuse, it just takes time to get used to that, what’s being asked of you physically. I think that was for me the difference.”
Liam Scales in action for Celtic in the Premier Sports Cup final. (Image: Stuart Wallace / Shutterstock)
O’Neill’s reversion to a back-four has Scales and his Celtic team-mates looking far more comfortable both in and out of possession. It is not just tactically, though, that he has helped restore confidence.
“The group works well, he’s a brilliant man-manager, but the coaching staff deserve credit,” said Scales. “It’s only been a couple of games now that we’ve been back in, but hopefully we can keep going in the right direction.
“I think I would have had similar maybe with my time in Aberdeen, when Barry Robson came in and he brought in his staff. We had been through a bad spell of results and it was just about going back to basics and doing the basics well and improving the confidence of the group. I’ve experienced it before, I’ve experienced it in Ireland as well. It works, it’s good and he’s got a brilliant team around him, like Shaun Maloney and Mark Fotheringham, Stephen McManus and Gavin Strachan.
“You want to start how they sort of left, you wanted to get back to winning ways. I think the first game, being at home, Martin coming back, all the things were going in our favour in that game. We scored early, so that was almost a textbook home game in the league, which we’ve experienced over the last couple of years. Obviously not every game goes like that, but that’s how ideally we want games to go at home.
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“Then you get a different challenge away from home against a good side who are hard to beat, especially there. The two clean sheets is a massive bonus, getting back to clean sheets. For us as defenders, we know that we have the quality further up the pitch, if we keep clean sheets we’re going to get results.”
Key to Celtic shutting John McGlynn’s team out on Wednesday evening was Kasper Schmeichel. Upon his return to Falkirk, the Dane made a crucial save in the last 10 minutes to deny Kyrell Wilson and maintain his side’s advantage.
“He’s a brilliant player,” Scales said of his goalkeeper. “Sometimes it’s just such fine margins. There’s ones that you think he saved and it’s just unlucky. He could have the same one again and he’ll save it. He’s a brilliant goalkeeper. He has been a brilliant goalkeeper for years and he still has so much quality.
“I think he’s pulled brilliant saves out for us over the season, especially Wednesday night as well. He made some great saves and they won us the game. It’s good to see. It’s brilliant to have a goalkeeper behind you performing like that.”