Daizen Maeda Scout Report At Yokohama F Marinos 2021 – Why Celtic Want Rapid £990k-Rated Forward ‘Worth Their Weight In Gold’

Daizen Maeda (173cm/5’8”, 68kg/150lbs) is currently the top scorer in one of the most successful football divisions in Asia — Japan’s J1 League, where he plays primarily as a right-footed left-winger but occasionally as a centre-forward for second-placed Yokohama F Marinos under former EPL and EFL Championship centre-back, Kevin Muscat.

Maeda’s manager, who developed a notorious reputation during his playing career, also played in the Scottish Premiership for Rangers.

Still, despite Muscat’s Ibrox affiliation, 24-year-old Maeda has been linked to the other side of Glasgow in recent weeks, with Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou said to be keen on reuniting with the Japanese attacker, who Marinos initially signed during Postecoglou’s spell as their manager.

Postecoglou recently confirmed that Japan is “one of the markets [Celtic] will be looking at” in January when the Scottish transfer window reopens.

The J1 League season comes to a close, while Maeda, currently valued at £990k according to Transfermarkt, is one name that’s heavily touted as being on the Australian coach’s wishlist.

So, what is it about Maeda that’s got Postecoglou so keen to return for his former player?

In this tactical analysis and scout report, I’ll attempt to answer that question by providing some in-depth analysis of Maeda’s game.

I’ll analyse the Japan international’s role within Marinos’ tactics, highlight the key strengths of his game (including analysis of why and how he’s scored so many goals this season), as well as provide analysis of some notable areas of improvement in Maeda’s game to share a more complete picture of who the player Celtic want is, and who he isn’t.

Daizen Maeda Attacking movement

Following intense reports linking Maeda with a move to Parkhead, former Arsenal striker Kevin Campbell recently urged the Hoops to move for the Japanese forward, stating: “If you can bring a goalscorer in, it will take the burden off the other strikers.

Someone who can put the ball in the back of the net is worth their weight in gold.

I am not surprised Celtic are interested in him.

His record speaks for itself” (via Football Insider).

The impressive record Campbell referred to is Maeda’s 17 goals in 2623 minutes of J1 League action this term.

These 17 goals have come from an average of 2.33 shots per 90 (high but not abnormally relative to other strikers and wingers in Japan’s top-flight this season).

Maeda has also managed to maintain a 55.88% shot accuracy rate this term, which ranks very well when compared to other J1 League attackers (strikers and wingers) this season.

So, we can see that although the Marinos forward has been taking plenty of shots this season, he’s not been wasteful and has generally been hitting the target fairly reliably.

As well as being J1 League’s top scorer, Maeda has generated the highest xG (14.89) of any J1 League player this season from his goalscoring opportunities.

This is a good indicator that Maeda’s high scoring rate is fairly well deserved due to the high-quality chances he’s had.

Part of the credit for this should go to Maeda’s teammates for consistently creating high-quality goal-scoring chances for him.

His team have capitalised on the abilities he brings to the table and made him a key part of a functional attacking system that rewards his greatest attacking qualities.

Part of the credit for this should also go to Maeda himself for performing his role effectively and utilizing his best qualities within this system, consistently getting himself into good goal-scoring positions from which he takes shots and ultimately scores goals.

Maeda’s off-the-ball attacking movement is a key part of his game, allowing him to find space in high-value positions inside the penalty box.

His teammates know the movements he likes to make to free himself up in threatening positions, while Maeda is also good at timing and adjusting his movements to the work of his teammates on the ball to ensure that he’ll be best placed to get on the receiving end of a pass when his teammate wants to play it.

This high level of understanding between Maeda and his teammates has, of course, played a key role in his success in front of goal this term.

In this section of the analysis, however, we will mainly focus on how Maeda moves off the ball during the attacking phases to highlight exactly what the attacker is doing to consistently free himself up in very dangerous positions.

The Marinos man is extremely quick and uses his pace a lot during games.

He is also very agile, using this agility while moving off the ball to quickly change direction at pace, and he tends to time his movements very well, both in terms of reacting to his teammates’ movement around him and on the ball as well as making himself more difficult for opposition defenders to keep track of.

Figures 1 through 3 provide our first in-game example of Maeda’s off-the-ball movement in attack.

Starting with Figure 1, we see the attacker — occupying the centre-forward position now — making a run into the penalty box between two opposition centre-backs while his teammate on the left-wing attempts to beat the opposition’s right-back 1v1 to progress into a crossing position.