Daizen Maeda's ability to press is 'one of the best' in modern football, says Petrov

Stiliyan Petrov believes Celtic forward Daizen Maeda has attributes that are "one of the best" he's witnessed in football.

Brendan Rodgers' team may have faltered to a heavy 7-1 loss against Borussia Dortmund on Matchday Two of the UEFA Champions League, but they still look a force to be reckoned with domestically, topping the Scottish Premiership after six games without losing dropping a point or even conceding a goal. 

Having said that, the 5-1 European win over Slovan Bratislava two week's ago shows that the thrashing received in Dortmund on Tuesday could just be a minor Euro blip, or in midfielder Arne Engels' words..."a bad day at the office". 

Maeda scored Celtic's solitary goal at Signal Iduna Park, taking his tally to six for the season. 

(Image: PA Wire via DPA) That impressive form has caught the eye of Petrov, who represented the Hoops over 220 times across a seven-year spell, and he reckons both Maeda and his countryman Kyogo Furuhashi wouldn't look out of place at his other old club Aston Villa.

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Villa qualified for the Champions League this season under Unai Emery and they recorded a historic result versus Bayern Munich on Wednesday.

Despite that, Celtic's Japanese duo have the skill-sets to fit into the Villa manager's squad, according to Petrov.

"There's not one, there's quite a few," the Bulgarian legend told Gambling.com this week.

"Listen, Celtic at the moment have been performing really well, but I would like to see probably two players, Maeda or Kyogo. 

(Image: SNS Group) "I think they'd suit every team. Maeda with his pace, his energy, his ability to push full backs and to press, it's incredible. Probably one of the best I’ve seen in football.

"And Kyogo is just a classy player, a great striker with so much ability, really clever and the main thing is he score goals."