Daizen Maeda

I think he'll he invaluable tomorrow night. Played a massive part in us dominating the second half in Poland when he came on at RW. Totally nullified Mudryk.

 

I don't know any other players in my living memory that I've felt so personally, emotionally attached to.

When he scores I feel like a totally blinded over passionate Da who refuses to see anything bad

 

I've criticised him a lot but I really thought was excellent in the second half.

 

He looks like he could have won 2nd World War for Japan at his own but seems to be a really nice and humble guy in reality

Think being a bit more bad * or arrogant could improve his self-esteem though, something I think hinders him from being more deadly in front of goal.

 

What you've said applies to Japanese or East Asian people in general. That's why their only famous striker is Okazaki. East Asians are conditioned to be humble, and do things for the team, rather than themselves.

 

Mon the Maeda

 

That's a very broad sweeping stereotype to apply to a huge part of a continent. From first hand experience I can tell you that's not always true.

 

I'm not a Maeda hater but I'm not into the whole argument that he should be taking up an attacking berth in the first 11 because of what is essentially his defensive qualities. If we want to be more clinical in these games then I'm sorry but you don't want Maeda getting on the end of our chances. Ange talks about an attacking philosophy so it doesn't make sense to play a winger for their defensive qualities.

 

When the team you're playing have one exceptional talent who can kill you if not tracked properly then it's definitely worth it. Maeda came on at RW in Poland too and we dominated that half, creating chance after chance. It wasn't only him who missed them so for me the balance is better with him in the team tonight.

 

He has to start on the right tonight, first half Mudryk was their standout player and if they were going to get anything it was coming through him, Maeda covering JJ almost completely took him out of the game second half.

 

I largely agree with you here but I also feel that a lot of his attacking threat is ineffective on the right, as displayed by the fact he's never scored for us when starting on the right.

 

You've met people I haven't met, and vice versa. I think the cultural framework in East Asia is very much structured to punish and root out selfishness, which successful strikers need.

 

Aye but what you said is as daft as saying all Americans are gun toting maniacs. You can't just apply a stereotype to over a billion people and claim it's accurate.

 

Lol he's defo got the old school Japanese approach, where you're not supposed to show too much emotion so it was fun to see him happy. It's been changing a lot in Japan in the last twenty years. Social media has opened up the Japanese youth to many other ways of doing things now.

 

Looked good when he came on, starting to get a little more fight in him.

 

Said it a few times now, think he is better coming off the bench than starting.

 

Said it earlier, the same as last game it was obvious from the start if they got anything out of us tonight it was going to be through Mudryk, Maeda should have replaced Abada at half time and just been parked on top of him to nullify his running again.

 

Looking much much better.

 

Another nice impact game.