Tavernier set for one last nightmare as he prepares to face Maeda again.

I remember the day I knew everything had changed. The Ibrox club had played against us the same way for what felt like years, and then suddenly, that day at home, they changed their whole game plan. Celtic had forced them into the change.

In doing so, we nullified one of their most potent attacking weapons and maximised that player’s weaknesses at the same time. It was a dramatic shift.

For as long as he had been at Ibrox, James Tavernier had played as an attacking wing-back. You very rarely saw him in a purely defensive role. He frequently got assists. He frequently got shots on target. If he got a free-kick around the penalty box, it was an exciting moment for them. Then, of course, there was his very familiar role taking penalties.

And I mean familiar as in we saw it so often you could set your clock to it during games.

He scored a lot of goals.

Although his attacking strengths were obvious, his defensive play was always suspect. They knew it and they played to his strengths. Then, on that day at home, they played him in a different role. They played him in his defensive position, nullifying his attacking threat and giving us something to exploit.

The reason they did that was simple.

Daizen Maeda. Maeda’s pace and work-rate were so ridiculous, and so threatening to Tavernier, that he would frequently tear him to pieces trying to compete with him. You could not play Tavernier too high against him; he would just get roasted once Maeda had the ball. It was so one-sided. Maeda was so dangerous on that left flank, with that extra yard of speed and alertness that Tavernier did not possess, that if you fired the ball down that side, only one person was going to win the footrace.

We nullified one of their best attacking players, and it still did not work. Maeda was still able to get that inch on him. He was still able to cut inside him. Tavernier’s lack of proper defensive discipline made that easy.

So, Maeda sent him off the field wrecked, exhausted, beaten and humiliated.

Over and over again.

No matter what they tried.

Everyone talks about classic duels, but usually they talk about them over individual games. This is one of the few I can remember between two players which lasted years, across multiple seasons. There has only ever been one winner.

The only reason Tavernier does not have even more humiliating memories is that last season they stopped playing him in these games. I never thought we would ever see him humiliated by Daizen again.

But he has been recalled to the Ibrox team in an attempt to add some steel to it. Some institutional memory. Some reminder of what it is like to actually win something.

So, the chance may come again this weekend. One more time.

How much he must hate it.

Tavernier must have thought he was past this. He must have thought that whatever else happened to him, whatever pain and humiliation he had to endure, at least this was over. At least there was no more Maeda.

Whatever other challenges he had to face, that one was in the rear-view mirror. There must have been relief in that. Instead he’s spent the early part of this week in a cold sweat. That is exactly as it should be. He deserves that.

How many times can you get into the boxing ring against the same fighter and lose over and over again before you tell everyone around you, “Don’t put me in with him anymore. I don’t want to keep getting beat”?

Now, one last time, Daizen may get the chance to rub his face in it.

To humiliate him all over again. To take this crazy contest another round. It’s hilarious to me. It is almost as if it is fated.

Tavernier is a yard slower now, and Daizen is getting back to his best. So, I have very little doubt that if Tavernier plays on the right and Maeda plays on the left, and they once again go up against each other, only one player is emerging from that as the winner.

Once again, the Ibrox player will be tasked with defending. He can’t defend. He never could. Maeda may once again clean his clock for him.

There are a lot of things I expect from the game at the weekend. I expect a very composed, very disciplined, very professional Celtic performance where we get the job done. When I think about the final Tavernier duel with Daizen, I see the possible match-winner going up against a serial loser.

And it makes me feel good.

The only respite for Tavernier might be if Daizen starts through the middle. But that just gives him a different kind of nightmare.

The truth is, I cannot wait to see how it all shakes out.

When I saw Tavernier reintroduced to the team against Hearts, my heart filled with joy at the idea that we might get to watch this one-sided slaughter one last time. As much as I’m looking forward to the win, I’m looking forward to seeing that.

Tavernier and Maeda. One more round.

One more chance for Daizen to remind him exactly how this story has always ended.

Only one winner.

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