In an interview of Japanese media today, Tomoki Iwata talked about his enthusiasm for Celtic Japan Tour and also looked ahead to the new season. First the Celtic defensive midfielder started by looking back on last season…
Iwata: “Immediately after joining Celtic from Yokohama F Marinos, I actually had a hard time adapting to various parts such as intensity of play and state of the pitch.
“As for impression of our team I felt after joining Celtic, we are aggressive in both offense and defense, especially our vector is always heading for goal. Also, compared to when I used to play for Yokohama F Marinos, I felt that Ange’s football was faster progress and individual qualities of teammates were also higher.”
Tomoki Iwata also talked about his enthusiasm for next season. “I have been given positive stimulation from the three bhoys called up to Japanese National Team, and now I don’t get frustrated with my situation that I haven’t been called up. The first thing I should do is to win the battle for being starter at Celtic.
“Throughout playing this season, I don’t feel that my physically is inferior to other players in the Scottish Premiership. By building stronger muscle and being physically stronger, I want to make my own strength is more ensured.
“It doesn’t change that my ultimate goal is to contribute to our team as a defensive midfielder. However, at Celtic, there are many cases that we hold the ball. When I play as a centre back, I also can send good passes, which is my own strength, from the back line and create rhythm of attack. Next season, I want to work on further speeding up my play and judging the situation more quickly.
“Among them, I want to reduce mistakes and improve success rate of passes. And I also want to play that leads to goals.”
“Champions League is waiting for our team next season. I’m going to make good preparations to play well there.”
Finally, he talked about his enthusiasm for Celtic’s Japan Tour later this month. “I won the J.league MVP last season, so I had a feeling that I couldn’t play badly this season. I’m under a lot of pressure from Japanese people. So I worked hard to play at Celtic.”
“Gamba Osaka, who Celtic will play against in the game to be held on 22 July, has been playing very good football since Daniel Poyatos became the manager. Therefore, in that game, I hope we can fully perform to each other’s characteristics and entertain fans of the stadium with two sides playing attacking football.
“Regarding the first game against Yokohama F Marinos to be held on 19 July, I personally can’t wait to match up against former teammates who play in midfield, such as Takuya Kida, Kota Watanabe, and Joel Chima Fujita.
“I want to make sure that they don’t take the ball, and on the contrary, I want to do match up with a strong feeling like that I’ll definitely push them away by my physically.”
That’s all. For those Celtic fans who are worried that Celtic is not making an official announcement about his permanent deal, his positive words for next season must be good news.
Yatao
I released 3 articles about Kyogo today, so if you have time tonight, please check out my article🍀@CelticStarMag pic.twitter.com/fAE7rpGJMy
— Yatao (@yataoda4) July 2, 2023
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