Daizen Maeda is exactly what Celtic need; Ange may have pulled off another masterstroke

By Hamish Carton

December 30, 2021

It’s fair to say that the Celtic support are pretty excited about Daizen Maeda.

The Yokohama F. Marinos forward looks set to become our second Japanese arrival under Ange Postecoglou – with an original loan deal likely to become permanent in the summer, as we told you last night.

The 24-year-old forward had a spectacular season in the J1 League, netting 9 goals in his last 11 games to finish the league’s joint top scorer on 23 strikes.

Photo by Hiroki Watanabe/Getty Images

Maeda seems to have a fair bit in his locker.

It takes about 5 seconds of footage to work out he’s extremely quick on his feet, while he also seems able to score headers and untidy goals too.

Lazy comparison maybe, but he does seem to play a similar style of game to Kyogo. And that’s exactly what Celtic needed to recruit.

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Ange will know what Maeda can bring to Celtic

Celtic’s reliance on Kyogo in recent months has been pretty telling.

Simply put, we don’t have another player like him in our squad, and our game suffers when he’s not available.

Celtic are far less effective without Kyogo stretching opposition defences and creating room for guys like Tom Rogic and David Turnbull.

Ange clearly realises the importance of the Japanese star too, and admitted Kyogo wasn’t fully fit in the recent win over St. Johnstone. (Celtic YouTube)

Celtic have been pretty reliant on Kyogo this season / Photo by Laszlo Szirtesi/Getty Images)

But if Maeda is at a similar level to our current Japanese talent, and he sure looks it, this could turn out to be Ange’s most important signing yet.

Celtic would have genuine options in an area of the park where Giorgos Giakoumakis and Albian Ajeti have so far failed to deliver.

We would have two pacey players designed to give opposition defences hell, and the over-reliance on Kyogo would surely fade.

Ange will be well aware of what Maeda can bring to the party, having worked with him at F. Marinos.

It seems like the rest of us are all about to find out.

In other news, Anthony Ralston has been speaking about how he thought his time at Celtic was up in the summer

Hamish Carton
Hamish Carton is a sports media professional with more than eight years of experience in the industry. Previously a football reporter for the Press Association, Hamish joined 67 Hail Hail to cover his beloved Celtic FC, the team he has supported all of his life. He is the face of the website’s YouTube channel and is responsible for planning, presenting and editing videos on the channel. He writes occasionally on the website and, just like Patrick, he is so in love with Ange Postecoglou that he's even written a book about his journey at Celtic.

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