A humble Tomoki Iwata realises the extent of the challenge facing him at Celtic trying to break into the side as a holding midfielder in a position that the inspirational club captain Callum McGregor has very much made his own.
In an interview with media back home in Japan, as reported by The Herald, the former Yokohama F.Marinos star completed his move to Celtic in the January transfer window and has already made a few steady looking appearances from the bench as Ange Postecoglou looks to get minutes in his legs as a Celtic player.
Competition for places at Celtic is intense and as both Ange Postecoglou and his assistant John Kennedy have been pointing out, the process of winning or retaining a place in the starting eleven at Celtic is fought out every single day in training.
Talking of John Kennedy, he’s not been doing much media this season as Ange has mastered that task so well, so it was nice to hear from the Celtic Assistant manager yesterday in this exclusive interview with Celtic TV which has so far achieved 10k views on YouTube, that’s roughly half of what Ange averages!
The humble mindset from Celtic’s Japanese stars seems a constant and will in Tomoki Iwata’s case will stand him in good stead. What is likely to happen is we’ll see Callum McGregor’s minutes during a game decreasing with the captain becoming one of the regular starters, alongside the likes of Kyogo, who are regularly withdrawn after an hour to essentially protect them for the next game and to keep their freshness levels high.
Few would argue that Callum McGregor plays an unbelievable amount of football year in year out and it’s possible that Celtic will get the best from him under this type of plan that could also have the added benefit of extending the Celtic captain’s playing career.
“I knew if I wanted to play in European football, I would have to play as a holding midfielder. That’s where the manager used me at Yokohama,” Tomoki Iwata stated. “It’s been about a month since I came here, but the speed and intensity of play is different from Japan, and even the ball and pitches are all different.
“The reality is I can’t do as well as I did in Japan because we have Kyogo Furuhashi, Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate who all start games and they all have something special that they can do…and I don’t. So I want to gradually get used to it and play more matches.
“My strengths as a holding midfielder are tackling and breaking up moves. But in this Celtic team, you need to have something extra. Here we have players who can create the tempo of an attack and distribute passes, for example, Callum McGregor.
“Callum McGregor is the heart of the team and the captain. I think the bar is set very high for me to be able to compete with him. But I have my own way of developing. Even if I don’t play in as many games, there are things I can learn from him in training,” Tomoki said.
“When I see how he passes the ball, or how he makes a change of tempo, he is very consistent, which is something I lack. I think it’s important to learn that in a short time and evolve into a player who can do something when he has the ball.
“A large part of my motivation to sign for Celtic was to play in the Champions League and I would love to do that next season and I will keep fighting to improve my game here.”
