Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers singled out one of his players as being truly underrated following his performance against Rangers.

The Scottish Premiership champions have made an excellent start to the new season, which continued after another convincing win against arch-rivals Rangers on Sunday. The Hoops looked in control of the tie from the off, and it wasn’t long before their dominance paid off, with them running out 3-0 winners to make it four wins from four.

9/10 Celtic star just showed why Rodgers can forget O'Riley

The Hoops central midfielder enjoyed a terrific afternoon at Parkhead on Sunday.

ByDan Emery Pundits react to Celtic beating Rangers

Despite Celtic losing one of their key players during the summer transfer window in Matt O’Riley, the Bhoys had a productive summer, as the club brought in eight players over the course of the last few months, with key areas strengthened.

Brendan Rodgers was keen for his side to have things in place should the club lose one of their better players, and they did just that, as Paulo Bernardo joined the club from Benfica earlier this summer, and they then brought in Arne Engels – two players who will look to replace O’Riley.

Arne Engels

FC Augsburg

Adam Idah

Norwich City

Auston Trusty

Sheff Utd

Paulo Bernardo

Benfica

Luke McCowan

Dundee FC

Viljami Sinisalo

Aston Villa

Kasper Schmeichel

RSC Anderlecht

Alex Valle (Loan)

Barcelona

The strong summer of business has helped the club make a good start to the season, and that continued on Sunday as the Hoops brushed aside Rangers in emphatic style.

Former Rangers striker Billy Dodds labelled Celtic a "very good team" and one that is playing with confidence after their win on Sunday. Dodds told Sportsound (via BBC Sport): "Celtic are a very good team – they are in such a rich vein of form, and they play with confidence, pace and energy."

Meanwhile, another former Rangers striker, Kris Boyd, believes Rangers are miles behind Celtic, as they are better than them all over the pitch. Boyd told Sky Sports: "Forget Celtic. Rangers are miles off. Celtic are better than Rangers all over the pitch."

While these pundits were lauding Celtic, Rodgers was keen to leave praise for a certain individual after his impressive performance against the Gers.

Rodgers sees Celtic player as underrated after Rangers display

Rodgers believes Celtic defender Liam Scales and other players like him may not be the "sexiest of players" because they haven’t been signed for a lot of money, but the manager sees the likes of Scales as invaluable.

Rodgers said about Scales to the BBC: "He had a fantastic season last season, and sometimes the guys that come in that are either Scottish or from Ireland, they might not feel to be the sexiest of players; we might not have signed them for a lot of money, but these guys… I don’t know where we would have been without Liam Scales last year.

"His robustness; he plays games, he hardly ever gets injured, and again, he stood up today."

This praise from Rodgers comes after the defender won every duel he had during the 3-0 win over Rangers. Scales played the full 90 minutes at Parkhead, making five clearances, blocked two shots and made two interceptions.

Furthermore, he won all three of his ground duels that he had in the game, while he also won all five of his aerial duels. Scales had 93 touches of the ball in the 90 minutes, finishing the game with an 88% pass accuracy. He was also given a Sofascore rating of 7.9 for his performance against Rangers, so Rodgers' praise was certainly not undeserved.