Paulo Bernardo hopes to add goals to his game at Celtic this season.
The Portuguese midfielder joined the club permanently following last term’s successful loan spell and netted his third of the campaign in Saturday afternoon’s 5-0 mauling of Ross County.
Bernardo’s minutes have been somewhat limited with record-breaking Arne Engels and captain Callum McGregor the main pair in the engine room.
Reo Hatate is also, more often than not, handed a starting jersey.
But Bernardo reckons that could change if he begins to boost his stats and add a scoring knack to his game in a more advanced position.
The 22-year-old was brought in to offer a fresh holding midfield option but manager Brendan Rodgers has tweaked his tactics and what it is exactly he wants from his playmakers.
And Bernardo feels he can push to score more goals which may offset the void left by Matt O’Riley in the summer who departed in a £30million sale to Premier League club Brighton a few short months ago.
That is the Portugal under-21s skipper’s target.
Emulate Celtic hero O’Riley and take advantage of the opportunities presented off the back of that.
Paulo Bernardo wants to emulate Matt O’Riley and score more goals for Celtic
“I am scoring more goals this year than last year,” he said.
“Was that a big target for me? Yes. I think every player wants to score goals. I’m an offensive midfielder.
“I look at Matt O’Riley last season as an example. He scored a lot of goals and I’m trying to get [big] numbers too.
“The coach always says to every midfielder to get in the box because things can happen like on Saturday when my goal was from a second ball in the box.
“If I make runs into the box, I can have these balls to catch up and shoot from. He encourages that. I think the goals will come with time. By just playing game by game and doing the right things.
“Any player who scores a lot of goals is very valuable to a team. So, I try to score goals, as I think every player does. Sometimes we can’t, but hopefully I can score more regularly.
How many goals does Bernardo have for Celtic?
“I think I did well [against County], but I think I can do even better.
“It’s just one game, we have a lot more over the season, so we need to look forward and think about the next game.
“Every game is a chance to do the right thing. I’m happy with my performances so far but I still think I can do better. It’s just about hard work in training to have these opportunities in the games.”
Bernardo, in his season-and-a-half at Parkhead thus far, has played 53 times for the club. He has notched seven strikes and provided five assists in that time.
