Brendan Rodgers believes Celtic ace counts as two players

After the midweek loss to Feyenoord, Celtic faced a tough away trip to take on Livingston at the Tony Macaroni Arena. David Martindale’s side are always well-drilled, organised and pretty robust in their play. On top of that, the Hoops have had a difficult time in the past on the artificial surface there.

That doesn’t make it a game for the Hoops to look forward to. But to be fair to them, Brendan Rodgers’ side did an excellent job at the weekend.

An early penalty goal from Reo Hatate got the side off to a great start. But then it looked like Celtic might be in for a tough time when Joe Hart was sent off before the half-hour mark. Scott Bain replaced him, curtailing James Forrest’s first start of the season as he made way for the replacement goalkeeper.

Rodgers adjusted his tactics to compensate for the ten men and the game soon settled down again, with Celtic pretty safely in control. In the end, the Hoops ran out as comfortable 3-0 winners against Livingston. That is a great result after a tiring away European tie.

Rodgers believes Celtic ace counts as two players

Rodgers was pleased with the performance and especially rated how Daizen Maeda helped the side overcome going a man down. As reported by Glasgow Times, the Celtic manager said:

"“It was a monumental win, in terms of getting back in after playing with nine men during the week.“Livingston is a notoriously hard place to come anyway, never mind with ten men, so to play with that mentality was very good.“Attitude and energy you need and that is what we had. Great move for the penalty, our movement was excellent.“We go down to 10 men and then we always have a plan for that in terms of how we work, how we keep the calmness. I thought the players were outstanding.“Two really good goals in the second half. As I said to the guys, when you have Daizen Maeda, it is not like playing with ten men.“He does the running of two men, he is absolutely incredible and I was so happy for him that he got his goal. He was so good on the day for us.“When we were down to ten, he was playing up front and that is his best position. I have said that before.“He is pressing and running in behind. He was there for Matty goal and I think he was unfortunate because the ball comes in and pops up and keeper then has to make the save.”"

Rodgers makes a great point about Maeda and his running and energy, he brings so much to the team and was constantly pressing, chasing back or winning the ball. As is sometimes the case, the Japanese forward failed to convert or was unlucky with, a few close chances.

After those misses he then scored with a sensational movement and strike on goal right at the end of the match. There are times when Maeda does not shine with occasional bad ball control or passes. But he often pulls something out of the hat as he did against Livingston, scoring a sublime goal.