After nine Premiership games without a goal Daizen Maeda was finding it tough at Celtic.
His contribution off the ball to Ange Postecoglou ’s team has never been in doubt. There are few players in Scotland’s top flight who put in a bigger shift than the Japanese wide player. But the 25-year-old admits he needed help in a bid to discover his goalscoring form again.
And it came in the shape of Parkhead coach Harry Kewell. Maeda is in Qatar with his national squad for the World Cup, gutted that club-mates Kyogo Furuhashi and Reo Hatate aren’t with him. But in contrast to the start of the campaign, he’s arrived at the tournament bang in form, having scored three goals in five matches for Celtic. Maeda accepts that something wasn’t right earlier this season. And that’s where Kewell earned his wages. The former Liverpool and Leeds winger was brought in by Postecoglou for situations like that.
