I SHOULD HAVE HIT FIVE
Demanding Daizen wasn’t content with terrific treble
DAIZEN MAEDA might have been clutching the match ball and a little glass trinket for being named man of the match.
But the Celtic attacker still looked like a man who’d found a fiver after losing a tenner.
A first competitive Hoops hattrick was impressive enough, on top of a typically tireless display that had the Parkhead support saluting their cult hero.
But Maeda admitted there was a hint of frustration he didn’t plunder more goals and make life a heck of a lot easier against Livingston.
The Japan star reckoned he should have scored FIVE against the Lions – rather than relying on his late third to scrape into the Scottish Cup last four.
Maeda was glad to help mind you, and he said: “I am very happy with my hat-trick but I am happier that we won the game The last time I scored a hat-trick was in pre-season in the friendly against Yokohama.
“Once we got the first goal and then the second, we had the feeling there was more to come. So it was good to get the third.
“I could have scored a fifth goal as well! But the important thing was we won.”
Maeda shouldn’t be too hard on himself. Yes, he managed to somehow miss a couple of sitters from about a yard out, but if the wide man was even marginally more prolific in front of goal, Celtic wouldn’t be able to afford to keep him.
He produced another one of those trademark displays where it was almost knackering just watching him.
Marathon man Maeda covered more miles than Mo Farah as he made sure Celtic got further down the road to Hampden.
It was a far from easy afternoon, though, with Livi twice pegging them back and resisting until the final few minutes.
Maeda was always confident it would come, though.
He said: “I wasn’t concerned that much because I had the feeling we could score again.”
In fairness, most of the Parkhead crowd had a similar vibe. There wasn’t the usual groans or growls while the clock was ticking down. And it ended up a more then decent day’s work – for Maeda and the rest.
The winger has been part of the Celtic walking wounded this season and he said: “It was very difficult for me earlier, but I kept working hard and doing my best and that’s why I am here today.
“I will keep working hard for the club.
“First of all, the next game will be the key game. I don’t want to think ahead too much. We just focus on the next game.
“Some games have been tough and we have struggled. But we have to compete and work hard.
“We have to keep working hard for the rest of the season.”
Nothing has come easy for the Hoops this term and they were without key duo Callum McGregor and Cameron Carter-Vickers yesterday.
But Maeda said: “Injuries happen and that’s not only at Celtic, it’s the same with any team.
“We have to work hard to overcome that.”
Maeda is a man of few words but his gaffer was happy to use more than a few in praise of the Hoops work horse.
Brendan Rodgers said: “It was great. He gets so much against the ball, his pressing, his work-rate, his intensity.
“It was really nice for him to get the hat-trick.
“All his runs and movements were penetrative and he finished his chances very well.”
Rodgers was pleased with Nicolas Kuhn on the other flank as well – with the German
looking much more like the ‘quality’ signing promised in January.
The boss said: “All of our creativity was on the right side and the finishing was on the left.
“Nicolas was much more like we want to see. He’s finding his strength now, having come in during his break at Rapid Vienna and having a few medical issues.
“That was much more what we want in terms of his speed and directness.
“He produced a great cross for one of Daizen’s goals.
“Daizen showed a great mentality and desire out there – and he could have had more than three goals.”
Livi managed two as well – and both were far from pretty from a Parkhead perspective. And Rodgers knew it. He said: “Yeah, they are poor goals, they’re poor goals.
“You see whenever Cam is not in the team – with the greatest of respect – the security in the team.
“So, no, we weren’t very good at dealing with that I felt, and the goals were on us.
“We gave away poor goals. We give the ball away, and with the first one, the first, second and third ball we didn’t get around it and then we are moving as the ball is getting played behind us.
“So, that’s not great from our perspective, but we were obviously good going forward.”
Rodgers knows Celtic can’t afford to be so generous in the title run in.
But he also knows where the problems lie. The Hoops gaffer said: “It’s not the vulnerability, it’s when you have the level of players missing that you then don’t have that same security. “I don’t have any fears when we have those guys back. “I just think that there’s a moment in any team when you are missing your best players then you will maybe not be as tight as you want to be. “That is natural, but what is important is that you still have that threat and dynamism going forward. “Okay, we conceded not great goals today, and that is on us. “But we still scored four and could have had a few more.”
After the first and the second we had a feeling there were more. I could have scored a fifth daizen meada wanted more goals