Red Star Belgrade 1-1 Celtic – We need to talk about Daizen Maeda

However, it’s abundantly clear that something is quite off, and the reigning player of the year is very much showing all the signs of someone with the world weighing very heavily on his mind at this moment in time.

Daizen’s recent revelations about wanting to move on during the summer came as something of a bombshell, and it’s only natural that he will be feeling the effects of what he believes, and is most probably right about the club denying him that opportunity to further his career.

I wrote recently about Daizen being the ultimate professional and how he would put his grievances aside when he stepped on the pitch, and to his credit he’s done his best, but it’s very clear that he’s just not the same bubbly player we all know and love.

Daizen was hooked at the interval in last night’s 1-1 draw in Belgrade, and he really could have no complaints. The amount of times he was caught offside in decent positions was baffling, and he was very much holding us back in an attacking sense.

Brendan of course like the rest of us noticed this, and was vindicated in introducing Kelechi Iheanacho who scored the vital goal, whilst providing us with a more potent attacking threat. Indeed on another night he could have had a hat-trick such was his immediate impact on the match.

Going forward Brendan has a big dilemma on his hands. Daizen is vital to our style of play, but unfortunately his head just isn’t in it at this moment in time. He is also seeing new arrivals come into the team like Sebastian Tounekti on the left wing and Kelechi Iheanacho through the middle and Daizen could find himself playing on the right wing ahead of Yang or even dropping to the bench.

That’s where he was on Sunday at Firhill and we all reckoned that he was being rested with Belgrade in mind. It will be interesting to see where Brendan uses Daizen at the weekend, left, right through the middle or on the bench.

For Daizen, it looks like January can’t come quickly enough for him despite his honourable intentions to do his best for the club while he is still here.