Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers has heaped praise on Daizen Maeda amid links with a move to join Ange Postecoglou at Tottenham Hotspur.
Daizen Maeda has been hailed as ‘incredible’ by Brendan Rodgers after his latest Celtic performance.
The Bhoys headed away to Livingston on Saturday afternoon with Rodgers seeking another Scottish Premiership victory.
Celtic ran riot as Reo Hatate opened the scoring from the penalty spot before a red card for Joe Hart.
Rodgers’ men still dominated even with 10 men and Matt O’Riley was on hand to make it 2-0.
Maeda then had his big moment, chopping back onto his left foot before firing a beautiful strike into the top corner of the net.
Brendan Rodgers hails Celtic star Daizen Maeda
Maeda had wasted a couple of decent opportunities before taking arguably the toughest chance of the lot, rattling his left-footed effort into the net.
That’s Maeda’s first goal of the season but he doesn’t need goals to impress boss Rodgers.
Rodgers told The Herald that he thinks Maeda is ‘absolutely incredible’ because of his unbelievable work rate.
Rodgers feels like Maeda does the running of two players, so Celtic going down to 10 men just wasn’t a problem.
The Celtic boss feels that Maeda’s best position is as a striker rather than playing out wide – though he rarely gets to play there due to Kyogo Furuhashi.
“As I said to the guys, when you have Daizen Maeda, it is not like playing with ten men,” said Rodgers. “He does the running of two men, he is absolutely incredible and I was so happy for him that he got his goal. He was so good on the day for us.”
“When we were down to ten, he was playing up front and that is his best position. I have said that before. He is pressing and running in behind. He was there for Matty goal and I think he was unfortunate because the ball comes in and pops up and keeper then has to make the save,” he added.
Maeda reportedly on Tottenham Hotspur’s wish list
We were always likely to see Celtic’s Japanese stars linked with Tottenham as soon as Ange Postecoglou traded Celtic for Spurs.
The Scottish Sun reported in June that Postecoglou wanted to sign Kyogo whilst The Daily Mail suggested that Spurs wanted Hatate too.
Now it’s Maeda’s turn with TEAMtalk reporting earlier this month that Tottenham are ‘keeping close tabs’ on the Celtic star.
Postecoglou knows Maeda well having also worked with him at Yokohama F. Marinos over in Japan before reuniting at Celtic.
Ivan Perisic’s injury may well lead Tottenham back into the market for another wide player in January and Maeda could be on the wish list – but Celtic will certainly command a hefty fee for the 25-year-old.
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