BRENDAN RODGERS hailed Daizen Maeda as “absolutely phenomenal” as the jet-heeled Japanese ace scorches through a sensational season.
Celtic unstoppable winger thumped a double past former Hoops Invincible Craig Gordon to fire his goal tally to 30 as the champions powered towards a 3-0 home win over Hearts on their way to an inevitable fourth successive title victory.
Next up it’s Sunday’s High Noon shoot-out with St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park, a venue where Maeda netted in the team’s runaway 6-0 success in September.
Rodgers is delighted with the goal return from the international flyer and is determined to tie him down on an enhanced contract.
HERE WE GO AGAIN…Daizen Maeda in a familiar pose after scoring another goal, this time against St Mirren keeper Zach Hemming in Celtic’s 5-2 win in Paisley last month.
The 27-year-old speedster didn’t break stride at the turn of the year when he took over his countryman Kyogo Furuhashi’s role of leading the attack – and his scoring streak has been a revelation.
The Celtic manager said: “If you trace back my comments on Daizen through my time working with him, I always believed he could play as a striker.
“And if you look at his goal return since February when he has moved into there, he’s got 15 goals in 11 games.
“But it’s not just that – it’s what he gives in the pressing. This is what I like to think my teams are built on, that high intensity pressure from the front and he is absolutely perfect for that.
“But the thing that doesn’t get mentioned so much – everyone talks about his pressing and his goals – but his movement is frightening. His movement in the game is as good as you’ll see.
“He’s just an absolutely phenomenal player and he will get some more goals by the end of the season, I’m pretty sure.”
THE KICK THAT WON THE CUP…Daizen Maeda fires in the decisive penalty to make sure of victory in the Premier Sports League Cup Final at Hampden in December.
Rodgers, speaking to Celtic TV, continued: “Daizen’s anticipation and his reading of the game is so good. You see it in his pressing and you also see it in how he reads the game to get into the positions.
“He’s playing at a really, really high level and it’s just a pleasure to see him play because he has so much joy.
“And he’s one of the few players in the world you see running and smiling. There are very few people who smile when they’re running, especially when they’re doing defensive running.”
Rodgers added: “I think you can see he has a big appreciation of the support he gets from the fans – they absolutely idolise him and love him.
“And he’s got his new song which is great, so I think he feels that.
“He senses that and he knows he has the support here.
“This is the environment that we have, it’s a really supportive culture here, and I think he’s in a really good place in his game and in his life, and he’s shown that consistently.”
