If the executives at Duracell don’t have a sponsorship tie-in lined up with Daizen Maeda, then they are missing a trick. After all, when it comes to his high energy pressing game, the Celtic winger is without equal in world football.
That’s the view of Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers, who was blown away by the all-action showing of Maeda on Wednesday night, with the Japanese internationalist setting the tone for the Champions League dismantling of Slovan Bratislava.
His former teammate Joe Hart, now impressing himself in his new punditry duties, brought the incredible work rate of Maeda to the attention of the country, highlighting his desire to track back and press and harry opponents to win Celtic possession in dangerous areas or stop counter attacks dead in their tracks.
Maeda can at times be something of conundrum. When he is on the ball, he seems as likely to blaze a simple finish over the bar as he is to tuck it calmly home past the keeper, or possibly slice a cross into the stand as he is to put it on a plate for a teammate. At various points in the match during the week, he did all of these things.
But it was in his stellar work off the ball that he really caught the eye, with his hunger to chase seemingly lost causes and do the dirty side of the game with relish wowing his manager, and leaving him waxing lyrical about his contribution to the team.
“I think what we're seeing from all those guys at the top of the pitch, that when they see it, they're going and then that's our trigger and reference to go,” Rodgers said.
“And I would doubt there's anyone better in world football than Daizen Maeda in that context.
“I've watched an image of the game where, and this is towards the end of the game, he's making a recovery run into sort of what would be the left back position, tracking their right back, thinking the ball's going to come across. But then the ball goes instead to the centre half, and he presses it and nicks it and he's away.
“Now, even if you can do that, it's the will and desire to do it, which most players won't have. You know, he could easily have dropped that press. He didn't have to do that one. That was the one that was important.
“He went, realised it wasn't getting there. And he actually got to the centre half before the guy that should have got there.
“It's incredible. It's unbelievable pressing, but that's mentality.”
Given that mentality, and that of all the Celtic players on the back of the buoyancy provided by their showing against Slovan, Rodgers has some tricky decisions ahead of their League Cup tie against Falkirk on Sunday.
He has to rotate and use his squad, but he also has a dressing room full of players – Maeda among them - who are desperate to get back out there.
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“We have to treat all the players and recover them and look at them in various ways,” he said.
“Obviously, I've got to be mindful as well. [Daizen]'s playing internationals and travelling around the world a lot of the time.
“You're also preparing now for the end of the season as well, making sure you're at times conserving energy in the right moments. But no, like every player, we always look closely at them and what they're eating and how they're training, how they're working and if we have to recover them or start them.
“I think there's a big cost to how we play. There's a cost in energy. And when that starts to drop a little bit, that ability to be able to make changes, to bring in, to sustain that, is very, very important. And I think we've seen that right to the very end.
“I just think it's that's what I get paid for. My job is a lot of thinking. It's a lot of making decisions and looking at different situations. But there's no point in having a strong squad if you're not going to use them.
“I think it was the beginning of the season. It was one game a week. So, there's not quite the same demand. But we were coming into a run of six games in 23 days. And there was no way that I'd be using the same team in all of those games because we want to keep that intensity and keep that mentality.
“And obviously, as the season goes on, I need to have a strong squad. So, it's great.
“Every player will always want to play and they'll be disappointed when they don't. But they're paid to deliver. And these players are delivering and that's what we want to continue.”
There may be some cases where the decision is taken out of Rodgers’ hands though. Alistair Johnston didn’t train at Lennoxtown today, while the effort expended against Slovan has taken its toll on one or two others.
“We've got a few players with niggles, so we'll have a wee look at that and assess that by end of play tomorrow,” he said.
“We won't take any risk on any players. It was the second day of recovery as well, so there was a group of the players out recovering, a group training hard and then one or two inside.”
