The Scottish Premiership’s Manager of the Month appears on the Open Goal Podcast as part of the sponsorship deal with a vodka company, we’ll not name them in case Tom English gets himself all agitated and starts firing off more anti-Celtic tweets – he’s already on a yellow at the BBC isn’t he?
Ange handles the humour and the banter brilliantly and he’s even happy to have a laugh at himself for being the last man to leave the pitch after the 3-0 win over theRangers at the start of last month that allowed his team to leapfrog theRangers to go to the top of the table.
The Open Goal boys were raving about the work-rate of Celtic’s January signing Daizen Maeda and that prompted this observation from Ange.
“The key with Daizen – and it’s the beauty of him – I know him because I’ve coached him. I knew what he would bring but it’s his ability to repeat a sprint. He’s just elite level.
“I measured it even when I was in Japan, against the very best his ability to close down. He can sprint, recover super fast and go again.
“If you watch the ball he plays to Tommy Rogic against Livingston last week, he closes down two players within a millisecond. I think the defenders were surprised it was the same person closing them down.
“That’s where he’s absolutely elite level. We have still to see the best of him, he’s still adjusting a little bit.
“His physical capacity is elite. It’s an important part of the game. You can’t just be floating about upfront mate and scoring goals – you have to work for it these days.”
Over 50k views for this Open Goal interview with Ange and it’s well worth a listen…
