How 'relentless' Celtic striker Daizen Maeda has a legion of new fans by outdoing even Kyogo

While playing for Ange Postecoglou's former side Maeda earned a reputation for his movement and speed. Since arriving in Glasgow, it's fair to say Celtic fans have seen why.

Relentless energy to press and harry the opposition has made him an instant favourite at Parkhead while, with six goals already to his name and clear signs he is building chemistry with his new team-mates, it appears as though Maeda has settled well in Scotland.

Here, we take a closer look at the Japan international's Celtic career to date...

Heatmaps

In Japan, Maeda played either on the left wing or as a centre forward. At Celtic, we have already caught a glimpse of how he looks in both areas of the park and what he provides. In the most recent game against Ross County, he even switched flanks with Jota to play wide right.

The first picture shows his action map as a centre forward so far. Note that these maps don’t include metrics such as pressures and are solely on-ball actions. Maeda’s map is as expected, with the majority of his touches coming in the box, where he uses his movement to get on the end of crosses or passes.

Interestingly there is a dark blue tinge across the whole attacking half of the pitch, indicating the large area he covers both offensively and defensively.

The next map shows Maeda while playing out wide. Highlighted are three areas of interest to his style of play.

The wide area is what would be expected - he comes back and helps a lot defensively.

On the attacking side of the pitch, despite playing on his unnatural side, Maeda is still getting to the byline to cross the ball. This isn’t usually what you would see from a player in the inverted role and, to circumvent limited left-foot ability, he often tries to wrap his foot around the ball and power crosses in low to increase his success rate. Sometimes it may fly out the park but it is an effective way to increase his efficiency.

READ MORE: How Celtic's ‘absolute pest’ Daizen Maeda helps harass opponents into submission

Next is the half-space, in which Maeda pops up often and where his speciality lies. He becomes really difficult to track with his movement and speed which allow him to make runs or get onto the ball in these dangerous areas.

Finally, in the box. This is where Maeda acts as an inside forward, supporting the side by getting into the box to attack the ball. The runs and space that both Maeda and Giorgos Giakoumakis help create for each other is a nightmare to defend against and is resulting now in Celtic generating a more consistent stream of high-quality chances in the box.

What does the data tell us?

Here we use a custom-built StatsBomb forwards radar that matches more stylistically what Postecoglou wants.

A good test for this is Maeda, who ranks in the 90th percentile or above for most relevant metrics. Most important to note is the defensive ability Maeda has brought to the forward line - not even Kyogo could replicate it.

His numbers for pressures, pressure regains, counter-pressures and counter-pressure regains are all among the top in the league which, surprisingly, Kyogo is nowhere near matching.

Maeda has supplemented this defensive success by being an extremely effective forward, with high xG shots and shot quality. His only real weakness has been the ease at which he has been dribbled past but this should improve as his knowledge of Celtic's pressing system does.

In terms of finishing, we can see from his shot map above that he is mostly only interested in high-quality chances with no long-range shooting on show. The highlighted area to the left of the goal is where he’s been most effective. From corners, he’s been able to peel away from his marker and generate goals against County and Livingston in these areas.

Comparisons

The same custom radar is used again with Maeda compared against Kyogo.

Celtic fans were stunned at Kyogo’s energy for pressing but Maeda is miles out in front of even him. Offensively and technically the former is ahead, though, and his shot OBV also far exceeds Maeda coupled with generally being equipped to provide more in build-up play.

These forwards have both been so successful so far at Celtic that seeing them on the park together to see what they can provide suggests exciting times lie ahead.