Goals had been flying in for Celtic in the first several league games, but more recently the Hoops haven’t been as clinical in front of goal as they need to be. As a result, they are winless in three games now, having lost two and drawn one. And there are some players who need to find their scoring boots soon.
Daizen Maeda isn’t perhaps the most skilful member of Celtic squad, but when it comes to hard work, energy and speed; he is well ahead of most players.
He joined the Hoops in January of this year and went on to enjoy a very good second half to the campaign, lifting the Premiership title. That came after he completed the 2021 season in Japan for Yokohama F. Marinos, where he was joint top scorer in the J1 League with 23 goals.
This season he has got off to a slower start goal wise with just a League Cup goal away at Ross County to his name so far. He has not had a lack of chances to get his name on the score sheet though, notably against Shakhtar Donetsk and Real Madrid in the recent Champions League group stage games.
Celtic star hoping to score more goals this season
Perhaps with those big misses on his mind, Maeda has admitted that he is looking to score soon. As reported by The National, the Japanese star said regarding the matter:
"“I haven’t scored a goal yet for Celtic in the league this season, but hopefully I can change that soon.“Celtic are a very easy team to play for.“I think I work hard for the team and I like to defend from the front too. I like to be able to say I have helped my teammates at the back as well.“I try my best for Celtic to be able to help at both ends of the pitch.”"
Maeda is away on international duty with Japan at the moment. He’s hoping to be selected for their World Cup squad, as they will be heading to Qatar later this year. He started their recent 2-0 win over USA and said about the upcoming tournament:
"“I am very much looking forward to the World Cup. We are playing some very high-ranked countries and I think my speed will come in handy there because we will break on the counter-attack against them.“It will be a great tournament and we are all looking forward to it.”"
Maeda’s Celtic teammates, Kyogo Furuhashi and Reo Hatate, are also expected to be keen to be involved in Qatar for the Japan national team but neither featured in the USA match.
Both of them have been in excellent form this season though and deserve to be picked, when they head to the World Cup.