Daizen Maeda

Maeda's effort where he blootered the baw over the bar reminded me of my da and his mates playing a charity game of fives.

Some of them hungover and having no kicked a ball in over 10 year, that was the level of technique and finesse that Maeda applied.

 

Naw, it was just a typical right footed player lashing at a volley with his left.

 

Said it many times, he’s just not a very good football player. Can run like mad, very quickly, has no touch or control of the ball whatsoever. If Brendan turns him into a player he should be knighted.

 

I think if it was in isolation I'd be of the same opinion.

But too many times Maeda gets to the byline and kicks the ball right out as though he's wearing a pair of Doc Martens.

I love what he does off the ball and he can be dangerous with it, but I would like to see us upgrade with a more technical player.

 

Aye that's how I see things as far as Maeda is concerned.

Brendan is known for developing guys and taking them to another level.

Between Brendan and Harry Kewell, maybe they can enhance aspects of his game.

 

Sorry mate, an upgrade on Maeda with technical ability is way out our price range. The guy must be a nightmare for defenders to play against and his pace gives us the opportunity to hit quickly and effectively on the break, essential for Europe.

 

I take on board your point.

Ultimately, if Maeda performs at the level I'm talking about then he wouldn't be at our club for long, which is the catch 22 situation for our players.

Maybe that is the issue, if Maeda was more technical he wouldn't be at Celtic. In Europe definitely, I think he's massive for us pressing and counter attacking. I always felt Jota was better on the left, and for that spell where Jota was red hot, I felt he was an upgrade on Maeda.

Maeda took the left side and Jota sorta fizzed out a wee bit on the right.

It depends what Celtic want to do. If we want to improve we will need to keep trying to upgrade. Or if we're happy dominating Scotland, and getting pumped rotten in the group stages then that's fine.

If we can come 3rd in a group stage that'll do me.

 

This is what people need to get their head around, if Maeda was intelligent and as technically good as Kyogo on top of his raw physical attributes, he would be out of our league, a £50m player.

He's not technically great but his running and pressing is genuinely elite level, and that's what we have aim for in our squad, players that excel in certain things but maybe aren't great in others, becasue we can't afford all round top end players like other teams in europe..

 

Agree with most of what you say. We need to replace jota with a quality right winger imo.

But, Maeda is a massive asset for us and I'm sure will be a big part in how we set ourselves up, particularly in Europe, going forward.

 

An upgraded Maeda with technical ability is probably Kyogo tbh.

 

Maeda was outstanding at the World Cup btw. And for us in the Champions League his general all round game was good. And see if he could finish the chances he made, then he’d have had 5/6 goals easy man. But that’s the frustration, he brings a lot, but he needs trusted to put those away at the higher level. But at that level, he brings a lot to us.

He needs to finish the chances this season if they come his way. In the CL specifically as well btw, so does Kyogo

 

Maeda as I’ve always said looks £100m player one moment and a Sunday park player the next with his finishing. We only need him to have a couple of great games in the CL to get out of the group. Against Real Madrid last year at home, if he was on we probably win that game.

 

A load of folk have said that bout the Real game but honestly, as superb as we were first half and if he takes chances, we’d probably be beat 3-2 anyway.

Ancelotti set up the 2nd half against us used every single part of our own strengths that was bothering them first half to their own advantage. Some of the best management I’ve ever seen against us tbh.

 

Yeah you never know, could still have had all three results on offer, but we were great under Ange on the front foot. We seemed to be able to blow teams away once on the front foot.

 

Aye definitely mate, it would have been nice to find out. Shaktar away was the one for me, no exaggeration to say that it could have easily been 5 and we’d have still thought we should have been more clinical

 

Yeah agree there were some games we should have got more out of. Yesterday was a reminder of that for me.

 

One thing Rodgers brought last time was a major clinical edge I think, he works a lot with the small margins to improve players. But he also * the CL games to a large extent.

So we’ll just need to see what happens this year now.