Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou has given his backing to Daizen Maeda as he struggles for form in front of goal.
The Japanese forward missed two big chances on Tuesday night as Celtic suffered a 2-0 home defeat by RB Leipzig in Champions League Group F which ends any hopes of reaching the last 16 with two matches remaining. Maeda has only one goal in 17 appearances in all competitions this season but Postecoglou says the 24-year-old is still developing and he will help him through that.
He said: "It's just perseverance. I know people look at the end product - and he was a bit unlucky on a couple of occasions, but he puts in an enormous work-rate. We felt from last week, down their right-hand side, they could be a threat going forward and I thought his defensive work was outstanding. And that helps us as a team.
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"But he has got to learn the other side of the game at this level is really important in terms of finishing the end product.
"He keeps getting into those positions, every game he does, but goals are eluding him. But we can't scrap him just because he is not the finished product yet.
"We have just got to persevere. All our players, apart from Joe (Hart), if you look at them age-wise and experience-wise, this is a massive jump for all of them.
"I am being really ambitious with the way I want to play our football and that's going to be testing for them. But I am not discouraged by the way we are going. If anything, I am encouraged that we need to keep going down this route."
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