Daizen Maeda

If your a scout.. plenty. He's slow. Cany cross. *. Look elsewhere. Thanks.

 

Eh *... aye he's rank rotten. Let's hope they don't take our prized asset Yang.

 

You two are on the wacky tobacky if you think he’s *… he’s worse than *!

 

The reason he's playing here and not at one of the elite clubs in Europe is that he's still extremely unrefined technically. He shocked us all with that chip against Dundee and he has scored a few really good goals for us, but I never expect him to.

It feels not that long ago that we were all exasperated with almost all of his shots and crosses, but recently he seems to have stepped up in quality.

His insane work rate and perseverance along with him just seeming to be a nice, humble guy allows him his many technical mishaps. If he suddenly starts picking the perfect passes and shots and executing them, then he'll be worth £50 million.

 

He is having an excellent campaign and had excellent CL campaign goals and chaos..

Last night kind of sums him up though his chaos brings our goal, but with a wee bit of composure in the first half it could have been different

 

he had no right to get to ball to set up kuhn .

 

If he was Brazilian would be at barca or madrid

 

Ridiculous talent under Rodgers.

Showing why he gets picked for Japan over others.

Chaos players like Darwin Nunez wish they could be Maeda.

 

Brilliant for our goal. Could maybe have been different if he had more composure at other chances/half chances but he is what he is and we love him for it.

 

If he was as clinical last night as he has been recently we'd have won that and been in the last 16. Still gutted with the one he missed with engels pinging it across the goal.

Think Idah starts almost every game now for a while with the 3 main wingers rotating.

 

Maeda missed two good chances to score and arguably a third with the diving header straight at Neuer. Arguably, Idah would have buried at least two of those opportunities and changed the whole complexion of the tie.

 

Arguably, we’d have been beaten comfortably if Maeda hadn’t been leading the line which set the tone for our press imo. I get what you’re saying but he was instrumental in our overall performance. Crucial for the goal that we did score also. If Idah starts, Jota doesn’t play so it’s impossible to say whether starting Idah would’ve made a difference to the outcome. He should’ve done better with the chances you mention but personally I just don’t see us playing better than we did with Idah through the middle given how we played at home when he started.

 

In terms of the two chances there is no guarantee Idah scores them, on the Engels ball across the box we have seen Idah get on the end of those but we also saw in Zagreb that he failed to and was beaten by his man.

Maeda should have done better with the one he tried the lob, it was ridiculous to try that when he could have played in Hatate, or took it on himself and hit it from the penalty spot, basically he could have done anything but what he did. He was instrumental in our goal though and Idah wouldn’t have won that foot race.

On the header I think that was our big moment at one up, if he had managed to put that across towards Idah rather than at goal, it would have been a massive chance for 2-0.

As good as an overall performance that it was, I am still a bit gutted we couldn’t have taken 2 or 3 more of our chances over the two legs. That has been the difference to teams like Brugge beating Atalanta, PSV beating Juve and Feyenoord vs Milan. Even when Feyenoord beat Bayern 3-0 it was based on finishing three chances and their keeper being exceptional, they were outplayed over that game far more than we were in either leg.

 

Really worried someone comes in during the summer for him.

 

Over the piece, given the three chances that were presented to Maeda and squandered, I would say the Rodgers gamble of benching Idah did not pay off. I said before in the prematch comments, I was not happy with Idah being excluded from the starting line up in favour of Maeda. I came to that immediate conclusion because Idah is a natural striker, whereas Maeda is more of a natural winger, * utility striker. Given the magnitude of the tie, basically a winners takes all Champions League play off match, I felt it was high risk to play Maeda, and bench an inform natural striker in Idah, not to mention the knock on effect of potentially knocking Idah's confidence, by dropping him to the bench in such a crucial tie. On top of that, we have seen Maeda blow lots of chances before in front of goal in important games, so I felt it was the wrong decision by the management in those circumstances.

It's conjecture and speculation I know, but that is/was my informed opinion and feelings at the time.
If we had started with Idah, I feel we would have went through.

 

Fair points and that’s why it’s a game of opinions.

I felt largely when Idah was on the field, he was too deep and especially when Kuhn went off we lost that threat in behind that had made Bayern nervous all night. I think that contributed to us getting deeper and deeper in the game and lacking an out ball. At times I would have liked us to have left one of the front 3 right on their centre backs as we still needed another goal in the tie.

I actually thought the fact that Jota could take the ball on the left wing and hold it or get at his man in more of a foot race worked well for us but we do lose something defensively by not having Maeda there. I think the ability to take the ball and not have to immediately lay it off under pressure from Jota helped us in this tie as if it were Maeda if he can’t go beyond and get in a foot race he will always look to lay the ball back.

Idah does offer another physical presence for defending set plays and he should have had his moment when Maeda should have knocked that header down to him instead of going at goal.

 

It is a different opinion, and I guess it is impossible to truly say, but I am not sure if Idah would have had the pace or engine to harass the way Maeda did....equally when Idah came on he did make the opportunity that lead to the goal, so in many ways his substitution worked.
Still all conjecture, but I think Rodgers will continue with mixing them up as he see's fit

 

It's all about opinions, hopefully informed opinions too

I really felt we should have gone with both Maeda and Idah against Bayern, and we would have got the best of both worlds, with a twin potent strikeforce. Maeda on the left with Idah as striker.

I feel the management, opted to include Jota instead, which I feel was the wrong decision, given that both Maeda and Idah were in top form.

I was happy with the team otherwise, but that decision was crucial I feel to the outcome of the game.

Experience was telling me that.