Daizen Maeda: “He’s everything that I want to see in a central striker,” Brendan Rodgers

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The Celtic Star

·5 aprile 2025

Daizen Maeda: “He’s everything that I want to see in a central striker,” Brendan Rodgers

Brendan Rodgers spoke to the media yesterday afternoon ahead of tomorrow’s trip to McDiarmid Park…

Kasper Schmeichel speaks to Gavin Strachan during the UEFA Champions League Training Session at Lennoxtown on February 11, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Q: I think Celtic fans may have got a bit excited at seeing pictures of Kasper Schmeichel at training. Has he made a quick recovery?

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Brendan Rodgers: “No, no, he’s clearly not damaged his feet. So, he can use his feet and work on his touch and whatnot. The timeline we’ve been given has been five to six weeks by the medical experts, but that could be sooner. So, he feels good, he’s got some mobility, he’s got rotation there, but we just obviously have to be careful with the blade and his shoulders. But he can do other things, so he’s out on the training field and working on the technical side of his game.”

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers arrives prior to the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Hearts at Celtic Park on March 29, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Q: How’s everything else? You’ve been here before; how do you sum up that mindset when you get to this stage where you’re looking to just drive over the line?

Brendan Rodgers: “Yeah, it’s a good feeling because obviously we get a chance to train, we get a chance to figure out maybe any issues that we’ve had in any of the games, and then we can then go into the weekend and look to perform. The feeling’s really good. The players have been brilliant this week in training, I have to say, watching the level. It’s very easy, especially when we’ve had a few days’ sunshine up here, it can feel relaxed. But it’s anything but that at this stage of the season, it’s really about your focus, and then training with a big heart every single day in your training, and then you look to take that into the game at the weekend. So, yeah, the boys have been really good this week.”

Brendan Rodgers arrives in Dingwall. Ross County v Celtic . Photo Vagelis Georgariou

Q: League reconstruction has been discussed this week; do you have a preference as to what that would look like?

Brendan Rodgers: “I’ve just heard that, someone mentioned the possibility of it getting smaller or increasing. I certainly don’t think it needs to get smaller. If it goes any way, I think there’s still a notion for me that we could bring a few more teams into the league. Clearly, there’s maybe issues around TV revenue, money, or whatever way that would look like, and there might be a challenge to that. But I think from a football perspective, I always felt that the increase in the league would help.”

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Brendan Rodgers arrives in Dingwall. Ross County v Celtic in Dingwall. Photo Vagelis Georgariou

Q: How would you square that with perhaps a worry about playing too many games? I know that’s an ongoing discussion, but I think you’ve spoken as well. Is there a part of you that would like to see fewer league games, or how do you feel about the number?

Brendan Rodgers: “I think the number has been 38 for a period of time, so I’m fairly comfortable with that. I think there’s lots of other football that gets added in, and then obviously your recovery time gets diminished. I think especially when you’re a successful team, you expect to play and play more, so we accept that. When I look at the bigger picture of the game, there’s absolutely no doubt about the recovery of players.

“When I see the competition in the summer, with teams at possibility of getting to the Champions League finals, and then literally a couple of weeks later going into a tournament that’s clearly driven by money, I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. But it’s the players that will suffer in the end, as will the supporters, because of the quality of the game.

“There can be too much football. There absolutely can, and we all love football. I watch football from all around the world, games most nights, and sometimes three or four games a day. But you’re risking just showing too much football, which in time might turn people off. So I think we just have to be careful with the game. I also mentioned before, I do think that it will become a 12-month season, the game, and then players may have to look at different recovery periods other than just in the summer. I think how it is going; you can see more games being added. Winter break has now been taken away. So there’s obviously a lot of discussion points in it, but certainly from a domestic perspective, I think the notion of if you could have a few more teams in there, I think it could work well.”

Ross County v Celtic in Dingwall. Photo Vagelis Georgariou

Q: Brendan, just on the discussions, there talk of a working group of people on that. Do you think that you as a manager, and maybe even the players as well, should have a bigger input into the way the game is going forwards?

Brendan Rodgers:“Well, players and managers are two of the major stakeholders in the game, alongside supporters. So there’s absolutely no doubt that the welfare of the players should come into it first and foremost, because these are the guys that are having to prepare themselves, go out, train every day, train really hard, live with the pressure of performing or not performing, and what that looks like. So there’s absolutely no question.

“I think we’re all pretty clear, let’s not beat about the bush, this is a money thing. It’s based around finance. One federation not getting a tournament, so they put in another tournament, so it’s all financial. But the players have to have a big part in that, of course, as one of the leading stakeholders in this amazing game that we play.”

Ross County v Celtic in Dingwall. Photo Vagelis Georgariou

Q: Given the extra European games on this season, that was obviously the reason why there was no winter break. Would you welcome if they played two less league games if it got that winter break back?

Brendan Rodgers:“I think this season has been interesting because it’s been the first, well we’re nearly there, nearly through the season, but this has been the first full season with the extra Champions League games in there, and without the winter break. There’s no doubt that period was a tough period, and we managed to get through it incredibly well.

“That’s not to say that happens every season. I would have to think on that, I’m not sure I can answer that now. I think whatever protects the game and the quality of the game. Like I said, players just turning out, and clubs like ourselves, we are fortunate in relation to, obviously we play more games, so we have a bigger squad and a pool of players that we can pull on, but there are other teams that will, you look at the pre-season this year, Kilmarnock and teams like that in European football, it’s a real challenge.”

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IMAGO / PA Images Ross County v Celtic – Nicolas Kuhn celebrates scoring Celtic’s second goal of the game with the Celtic fans during the Scottish Premiership match in Dingwall on Sunday October 6, 2024. Photo Steve Welsh

Q: One of the, certainly amongst supporters and many others, one of the criticisms is that a team plays the same opponent four times a season. Do you buy into that, that that can perhaps kill the enjoyment of that league?

Brendan Rodgers: “Not kill the enjoyment, because there’s still always something to play for. I wouldn’t necessarily say it kills the enjoyment, but of course if you’re playing a team home and away, then it’s arguably better, but I can’t say in all my experiences up here that it’s killed the joy.

“We will go to St. Johnstone again and we’ll be ready for that and the supporters will be ready for that, excited for the game. I think if I had a choice, of course you would play a team home and away, and that would be that, but the league is the way it is at the moment. It’s nice that there are certain items of the game being looked at, but at the moment it is what it is and we have to deal with that.”

18 02 2025, Champions League, FC Bayern Muenchen vs Celtic Glasgow, Allianz Arena Muenchen, Brendan Rodgers Celtic Glasgow. Photo IMAGO

Q: Where do you adhere to ultimately when it comes to the game, whether it’s at European level, world level or domestic level? Finances ultimately dictate?

Brendan Rodgers: “Yes, I think that’s how the game has pretty much evolved over these last numbers of years, and none more so than now. That’s obviously paramount in the game, but I think you can’t ignore the players and what they go through on a physical level. People say, listen, they earn enough money, they should get on with it, but that’s not the point. Not everyone does, and it’s more than that as well. The pressures now that the young players are under and the spotlight that’s on them and what they have to deal with, it’s a tough challenge.”

Jota of Celtic celebrates after scoring the second goal during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Hearts at Celtic Park on March 29, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Q: In terms of the next few weeks, it’s obviously an important period for you guys. Do you keep your foot down to the finish line?

Brendan Rodgers:“Yes, that’s the mentality. I think we had a really good response last week. I felt our game was at a really good level against a good Hearts team that have been consistently doing really well over the last number of months. Again, we’ve come up in the last number of weeks with a few systems that have been different to what we’ve come up against before. We had to try and figure that out against a good Hearts team because they played the same as theRangers.

“With some time on the training field, we were able to figure that out and work it well. Play with the speed, play with the mobility, the rotation, the technique that we wanted in the game and scored three fantastic goals. We want to keep delivering a level of performance. Like I say, the finish line is in the distance for all teams with the games, but for us, we know where we want to be at the end of the season. Each game now, that’s what our focus is on.”

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St Johnstone v Celtic – Callum McGregor celebrates scoring our fourth goal of the game during the Scottish Premiership match at McDiarmid Park, Perth on Saturday September 28, 2024. Photo Jane Barlow

Q: I think the last time up at Perth was one of the top performances of the season, 6-0. The one before that was the one you took the paint off the wall at half-time. Contrasting emotions in those games, the more recent one is the one you’re going for this weekend?

Brendan Rodgers:“Hopefully, that would be nice. That game that you mentioned, we were waiting on the game and I don’t like the team to wait. We were disappointed in that first half, second half. We were outstanding. Obviously, the performance early in the season up there was so good. The level of the game, the goals, we had a goal disallowed as well, which I felt was a goal. But the focus on the team and the level of the football was at a high level. We’re at the point of the season now where it’s one game a week. We have to be really intense. We have to really go and show our authority in the game. That’s what we aim to do.”

Simo Valakari, Manager of St Johnstone, at the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and St. Johnstone at Celtic Park on December 29, 2024. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Q: Do you think St Johnstone have improved since that game?

Brendan Rodgers: “I look at how they play and I think they’ve been unfortunate in terms of the numbers of the games they’ve played. I like the new managers coming in and what they’re trying to do and how they’re trying to play. They’ve obviously made some changes in January as well, so the team will look a bit different. He wants them to play a technical game. Tactically, you can see how they move. I’ve enjoyed analysing them, but somehow, they’ve just not quite got the results. As always, we have to prepare for a tough game. The surface probably won’t be ideal, but we have to deal with that and look to bring our A game.”

Daizen Maeda, POTM again! Photo SPFL

Q: Another Player of the Month award for Daizen Maeda, it just shows that he’s continuing in that form, the consistency that he’s producing?

Brendan Rodgers:“Yes, a remarkable few months he’s had, but also a remarkable season. To be sat on 30 goals where primarily he played as a winger. Before February, he had the odd game was a striker, but since February we’ve put him in there.

“He’s everything that I want to see in a central striker. His work rate, his intensity, and then of course the movement he makes for his goals. The first one last week, even Jota’s goal, the sharpness of his movement to get the header. He’s just so instinctive, but also his reading of situations is so good. I think he’s improved on his technical level, his finishing, and that comes with confidence as well. He’s been in various positions. When you see him play through the centre, you feel that he’s going to get goals and he’s going to create goals. I’m very happy for him.”

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Daizen Maeda after scoring during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Hearts at Celtic Park on March 29, 2025 (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Q: Is that where you see him going forward now? He’s obviously used to being winger and play sometimes through the middle. Has that switched a bit?

Brendan Rodgers: “I think the situation was that Kyogo was the central striker here along with Adam Idah. He’s played a lot of his games off the side and was still effective there. You trace it back to when he was in Yokohama. I really feel he can play in that position. In January, I didn’t want him to have to play in that position because I wanted the squad to be as strong as we could. But I felt that if we didn’t get a striker, there’s no doubt he can play there. He’s hopefully shown why that is. His movement, pace, technical ability, but also the hunger in his pressing is massive. He’s played ever so well and consistently well.”

Daizen Maeda of Celtic is seen during the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup Quarter-Final match between Celtic and Hibernian at Celtic Park on March 09, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Q: Consistency in his finishing is one of the biggest factors recently. It looks like he’s been scoring every time he gets a chance. Is that in his mindset, just relaxing a bit more? Or is it just a case of you see him out on the pitch every day working on it as well?

Brendan Rodgers:“There’s a wee bit of everything there really. I think that he works closely with Jack Lyons here, one of our young coaches. He’ll focus individually on some of the details on that. What we see in him, he’s very coachable and he’s a great learner. That’s what you want in your players. You can have players that are very good players but they’re not very coachable. His ability to learn is also what has helped him. He gets pointed out items with all the coaches and what we’ll speak to him as a manager. Jack will do specific stuff with him as well. All of that he’s shown an ability to learn. That’s always a good sign. Then I think confidence, like you say. Being in the middle of the goal means he’s making different runs. He’s ended up crossing a lot on the left-hand side. He’s not always in the positions that he would be as a central striker. I think we’ve seen that he can make all the moves and do everything you want in that position.”

Adam Idah of Celtic celebrates after scoring to give them a 2-0 lead Celtic v Hibernian, Scottish Gas Scottish Cup, Quarter Final, Celtic Park, – 09 March 2025. Photo Stuart Wallace/Shutterstock

Q: Have you had to manage Adam Idah as a consequence. Maybe he might have assumed or thought that he might be the first choice with Kyogo moving on, that’s not quite the case. Have you had to manage that situation with him?

Brendan Rodgers: “I think it’s all the players. It’s recognising and acknowledging that here there are a lot of games to play. I think with Adam, Adam trains really well. He’s very focused. He’s had some really, really big moments for this club. I’m really happy he’s here to be one of a number of strikers because it gives us something different. He’s always looking to improve his game. His finishing is really, really good. But of course, Daizen going into the middle has meant that he’s played a similar role to what he did with Kyogo. But it can also be the type of game that we need. Adam is hungry to always show what he can do. As is Daizen, as are the other players. I look at young Johnny Kenny. I see Johnny Kenny every day. I look at the work he puts in. Whether he’s off the side, whether he’s through the middle, his movement is great. He’s a fantastic finisher, 25 yards in. He’s really, really good and he’s hardly had any game time. I recognise with all the players, if you’re not playing, especially at this time of the season, which is one game a week, it can be a challenge. But their attitudes have been first class. They’re all supportive of each other and the spirit is very strong.”

Conor Spence

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