'We learned from our mistakes and turned to a pragmatic approach,' Daizen Maeda

Now Celtic aren’t exactly great at communicating their intentions but Brendan Rodgers did speak towards the end of last season about talks taking place with Daizen Maeda on a new contract that would take our Player of the Year towards the top of the high earners at the club. And it’s no more than he deserves.

Speaking to local media back in Japan, Daizen talked about enjoying playing in the new format of the Champions League and he certainly sounds like he’s relishing the prospect of doing it all again.

“I really enjoyed playing in the Champions League this season because there were so many games and it gave us a lot of different challenges,” Daizen said, as reported by Daily Record.

“I think the new format has been great and I am excited to try it again this upcoming season. It helped me improve. We played some great teams. Personally, I actually thought the best side we played was Atalanta because they didn’t appear to have any weaknesses.

“Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund were very strong, but they had some weaknesses in their team, but when we played Atalanta, there was nothing for us to work on,” the Celtic star said. And he revealed more than perhaps Brendan Rodgers at the time, about the change in approach the hammering in Dortmund brought about.

“When we faced Dortmund, we chose to go head-on with them and lost seven goals,” Daizen recalled. “It was this defeat that made us realise that it is unrealistic to go toe-for-toe against strong teams at this stage. That is why we learned from our mistakes and turned to a pragmatic approach.”

On his own overall showing in the Champions League, Daizen was pleased with himself, but perhaps less so when it came to the domestic outcome. “I scored four goals and was happy with my performances,” he said. “We had a chance to win the treble, but lost the Scottish Cup Final on the last day of the season so I still think we have room for improvement at Celtic.

“Personally, although everyone spoke about how I scored more goals, I think my increase in assists were more satisfying for me.”

Daizen also referred to his incredible energy in matches. “I like to defend too. It’s muscle memory for me. When the team loses the ball, because I am the first line of defence, my body will instinctively start chasing back. This defensive awareness has been deeply rooted in my bones and I don’t need to think about it.”

On his iconic knee slide celebration he gave an explanation on where that came from and how the Scottish climate played its part.

“My son was doing knee sliding exercises at home. I was inspired by that and thought I could do it too. I thought I’d give it a go and it was surprisingly easy, so I started doing it after that. It’s easy to do in Scotland because the grass is always wet.”

Now it’s over to Michael Nicholson to get this Daizen Maeda contract done to elevate Daizen to the status he deserves and to keep him at Celtic for the longer term.

Read Sandman’s assessment of Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate and everyone else in his Definitive Graphically Enhanced Review of Season 2024/25 which is available to enjoy on The Celtic Star now.