Daizen Maeda has plenty of sympathy for his two Celtic teammates, Kyogo and Reo Hatate who were surprise omissions from Hajime Moriyasu’s Japan squad for the Qatar World Cup. The Japan manager selected Maeda not because of his form at Celtic but because he is well aware of the running qualities of the Celtic forward that could be most useful in this campaign.
Reo Hatate is probably more suited to the next World Cup yet not taking Kyogo, was a major shock and one that will no doubt be held against the Japan manager should the Japanese World Cup campaign fail to impress.
“I feel sorry for them both,” Maeda said, reflecting on his two Celtic teammates missing out o the World Cup in Qatar. “It’s a shame they are not going to the World Cup, but I will do my best on behalf of them in Qatar.
“I think we have chances. The first game against Germany will be very important. We are targeting victory in that match and hopefully that will put us in a good rhythm.
“I am just excited to be going to Qatar. Celtic and the national team have very different playing styles, so I need to adjust my game. It puts different demands on me mentally and physically, but I need to adapt to play well,” Maeda said, as reported by Glasgow Times.
Maeda freely admits that it’s taken time for him to adapt to playing his football at Celtic and after a real dip in form he has come back strongly, with much of that down to the extra work he’s been doing with Harry Kewell.
“During these months I think I have fitted in well to the team,” Daizen said. “I have to keep doing my best and keep going to make the team’s targets. I will go to the World Cup now and my focus is going to be on those games.
“Yes, indeed I had some difficult weeks and months, but I had some very good support from our coaching staff. I have been working on it with them and I really appreciate what they are doing for me.
“Each of them has supported me but especially Harry Kewell. He has been sharing his experience with me and we have been watching videos together. We have been having sessions and this is something which helps me a lot.
“Throughout my professional career and indeed my whole time in football I have not met a coach like Harry. So, it’s thanks to him that I am really enjoying my football and improving my skills.
“It’s down to Harry that I started to change my approach and performing better. Thanks to Harry. He is very good at establishing relationships with the players.
“He can verbalise clearly our good points and bad points. We’ll sit and watch the videos and he will explain to me very clearly where I can be better and what I need to do. It’s a good situation for me. It’s because of this that I feel I am really enjoying my football right now.”
Maeda is one of four Celtic stars in Qatar with Cameron Carter-Vickers representing the United States, Josip Juranovic Croatia and Aaron Mooy Australia. “We are all in different groups so I think we will be wanting each other to do well,” Maeda said.
“Hopefully, we can all qualify and we will get a chance to play against each other in the later rounds. It would be very exciting to make it through the group stage and come up against one of my team-mates.
“Hopefully I will still have plenty of energy for the games when I come back but I am not thinking about that too much at the moment,” he said.
“Once I finish international duty my focus will return to Celtic.”
