Daizen Maeda

Maeda has looked knackered and I'm not surprised. Just doesn't stop. But last few games after 60 mins he's looked tired.
I'm sure he'll be up for skelping huns but

 

Capable of outstanding brilliance and mind boggling incompetence within the space of 1 or 2 yards.

A complete enigma at times and at others essential to the way we play.

 

I don't think he is fully fit. He's not tracking and pressing as well as he can in the past couple of weeks.

 

Last match at Hampden he scored a hatrick....same again please

 

I reckon Sterling starts on Sunday, he came on against Spurs. Tavernier has returned to a bit of form and actually done very well defensively last night as well, Werner having zero semblance of form and confidence helped immensely to make him comfortable that he continued when he went off but regardless of that, he absolutely does not want to be up against Maeda. He’s petrified of him, to a mental extent. Rarely have I seen a player that obviously nervous being up against a player than Maeda against Tavernier.

 

Not as positive as them actually playing him right enough, win-win.

Stirling is better equipped to handle him though. Tavernier by this point is a shattered mess at the thought

 

Taverniers glaring deficiencies are not being positionally aware. I think Sterlings deficiencies are clumsiness and arriving late to the ball creating fouls. Tavernier rarely lunges in so I think Maeda could win us a few free kicks down that side of Sterling plays. Maybe even nicking the ball for a penalty.

either way that’s one 1v1 I only see one outcome with.

 

Tavernier is also consistently the biggest attacking chance they have with us as well. If he doesn’t start @PaulM1888 nailed it, they’re worried about what we can do and not confident, if he does they think they can go for us and win. Either option suits us.

The other big call for them is if Hagi starts, he’s changed them attacking wise to be a lot more dangerous going forward along with Igamame. But then they leave the midfield open if they do. Diomande playing where he did against Spurs is something they’d need to not get destroyed by our midfield, but if they don’t start Hagi they’re showing they aren’t confident and need to limit what we do, playing to stop us rather than playing the most dangerous team they can.

And their fans will be raging at any decision they make, either naive or too worried about us.