Daizen Maeda

Can't imagine Huns knocking it about at the back, think they'll lump it up towards Morelos and play for knock downs to Tillman and flick ons to Steve Gappy.

 

Maeda is a real pressing / sprint monster. The data below is a very good example. You see 1,358. It's the number of sprints per season rankings in J League history and Maeda's sprints were1,358 in 2021 season, and it's the number 1 in J-League history. You see 64, 62 and 55. It's the number of sprints PER GAME. All top three of 64, 62 and 55 are Maeda's sprints per game. 60 sprints per game is amazing.

 

This video is Maeda's defensive role in the world cup 2022 against Germany, Spain and Croatia. Actually, some people were joking Maeda is "defensive forward" (by the way, he scored against Croatia). I like him even more for the defensive role

 

It's not a joke. It's a very serious problem for modern teams that like to play possession football. Maeda poisons and paralyzes the build-up phase. No wonder Moriyasu included him in the team. Sadly for Japan, Furuhashi wasn't on the roster last year. If he was available as a substitute, Croatia would have lost to Japan. Asano scored a great goal against Germany, but Furuhashi is closest to Maeda's defensive ability, but more technically gifted. When Maeda went off, Croatia could stabilize the game.

 

Poor in the first half, but that second half performance was fantastic.

 

Even when he's not at his best, he still does a superhuman shift. A wee assist as well.

 

Work horse with an incredible attitude. If its not going for him, he's still busting a gut. Brilliant. Up and down that pitch all day.

 

Love him.

Pish on the ball today but his work rate was different class.

 

The recipe how to fell a giant next autumn is simple: put him up top with Furuhashi (4-4-2), and no matter who we're playing against, their build-up will go nowhere. Maeda is the world's best defensive forward (Kyogo second best). He will ruin someone's day with his pesky charges. It's inevitable.

 

Absolutely adore his workrate and spirit and he is integral to how Ange wants us to play, but my *, his touch and decision making at times has made me look like Mooy.

I'd be playing Jota left and Abada right or Haksa left and Jota right for a while - probably the latter as Abada is off it too.

 

His delivery wasn't great but he kept them pinned back and was a great outball. Incredible work rate as is standard with him.

 

Not his best today and should have been replaced a lot earlier in the game.

 

Brutal today. However his work rate was as per. Which is the least we should expect from a Celtic player.

 

Would love to see his stats for today his work rate was phenomenal the amount of times he stopped them countering with last ditch interceptions. As poor as he was on the ball at times he is key in these games.

 

He was outstanding defensively.

He has his limitations of course, but he contributed well today.

 

His work rate is astonishing...

Maybe not the best of games on the ball but still got an assist and played a big part in defending when we were under the cosh a wee bit in the 2nd half.

 

Definition of selfless. Love him.

 

Worked his * aff. No his best quality wise by far though..

 

Absolutely horrendous on the ball today, but you can see why Ange left him on and took Jota off. Even though he was pretty awful going forward, you know you are going to get a shift going the other way, and that is imperative in a game like today.