Maeda Continues To Be Celtic’s Most Underrated Player And Sometimes Whipping Boy.

There is a section of our fan-base which always makes me laugh. They alternate between hating on various different players at various times but there are targets they return to again and again. One of them is Daizen “Danger Mouse” Maeda.

What is it with this guy that people don’t appreciate? He played wide right the other day, which I don’t think is his best position because he can’t cross the ball properly with his right foot. But then, there are people who say he’s not much better at cross with the left. This is silly, as he’s actually very decent wide left and that’s where I prefer watching him.

He is one of the most underrated players in this squad, and his role as part-time whipping boy of that section of the fan-base is actually hilarious.

Maeda gives this team so much. I was delighted when he returned from international duty with Japan because we have missed him big time.

He works so hard. He pulls defenders towards him. He scores goals. Not as many this season as he’s capable of, but he is a constant threat inside the box and defences are afraid of him.

It took me a long time to realise the truth of the football adage that the bulk of what a really effective player accomplishes in a game is done off the ball, the stuff you never see because you’re never watching for it, but if you ever need an ironclad example of that this is the guy to watch.

He is a nightmare for defenders because he is lightning quick and alert to every error and that means he has to be marked tightly and watched like a hawk.

Watch the goal he scores at Ibrox. The real work in that goal is not the moment where he breaks away from the ball, it’s the moment he gets away from his marker and readies himself to pounce on the mistake. That’s all about game intelligence and his is first rate.

His very presence on the pitch changes the way the opposition approaches the match … rival managers know this, they drill it into their players, and this constantly pulls them out of their defensive shape.

The goal at the weekend was typical of his ability to get away from people and into good positions. We play him against the Ibrox club because the act of doing so neutralises the threat for Tavernier and stops him bombing up the pitch, because it creates too much space for the direct ball for Maeda to run onto. They still don’t know how to handle him.

The manager took a brave decision to play him wide right at the weekend, especially as the media’s response to that was entirely predictable; they started asking why Kuhn wasn’t in the team.

But the answer to that is easy; the boss regards Maeda as absolutely crucial to the side and when he found out that Abada was unavailable he chose to play Palma, and the minute he did that Maeda was always going to be on the right because he was always going to be in the team … Maeda is one of the first names on Rodgers’ team-sheet and for obvious reasons.

What is the Rodgers mantra? Pace and power. Maeda might be slight, but he’s strong and sure as Hell we know that he’s fast. No wonder the manager, who does see what he brings to the team when he isn’t on the ball, loves him so much and plays him constantly.

I do wish he was more consistent in crossing the ball, but the truth is that if he was we wouldn’t have gotten near him in the first place and we sure as Hell wouldn’t have been able to keep him.

If he was only a little better at some of that stuff it would have been him, not Kyogo, who Ange Postecoglou would have been most likely to take to Spurs; people forget that Maeda, not Kyogo, was the first player he wanted to bring from Japan but his club dug their heels in.

We’re lucky to have this guy, and although I wish that some folk would get off his back it amuses me as well because a player like him is always going to be surprising more than just the opposition.

He catches the critics cold time and time again and I don’t think we’ve seen the last of that this season. Maeda is going to be crucial to this run-in.