Happy 2023 to you and your family and thank you for taking an interest in this little corner of the Celtic multiverse.
The Derby tomorrow throws up some interesting selection posers for Ange Postecoglou.
Right Back
The right back berth seems to be a choice between a player who potentially has his eyes elsewhere (Josip Juranovic), a newcomer (Alistair Johnston) or a square peg (pick from Reo Hatate, Mortiz Jenz or Karl Starfelt).
We’ve seen the movie before where players with one foot out the door are asked to give all in the white heat of a derby and fall well short (Odsonne Edouard and Ryan Christie being the most recent examples).
We’ve also seen others thrown into the Ibrox cauldron sight unseen (Juranovic himself as a left back and Badr El Kaddouri, anyone?).
It usually doesn’t end well. I suspect, given the manager is not one for selection high drama, Juranovic will be selected.
Of equal intrigue are the wing positions.
Right Wing
With Sead Haksabanovic unavailable, and James Forrest playing the role of stable super sub, I fully expect Liel Abada to be given license to continue torturing Borna Barisic down the Celtic right.
Left Wing
On the left it comes down to Jota or Daizen Maeda.
Maeda’s performance against Hibernian, whilst not revelatory, was hugely encouraging.
The Japanese World Cup star led the team in my aggregated Attacking Threat metric with 13, the next highest being nine.
He also had the highest overall packing score with 145 – 31 more than next best Alexandro Bernabei who racked up 114 in only 22 minutes.
This was mainly due to a 121 pack receive score – basically being on the end of forward passes. None more gloriously than Greg Taylor’s 55th minute laser that took out the whole Hibernian team and led to Lewis Stevenson’s panicked handball and hence to the game sealing third goal from the penalty spot thanks to Aaron Mooy.
This was one of 19 forward passes Maeda got on the end of.
He also led the side with 10 possessions in the box, a season high.
Maeda created two chances and led the team with four shots. His goal on 36 minutes took the game away from Hibernian. The nature of it was startling. Driving from a standing start near half way, he burrowed infield and took on a curling shot into the far corner, executed to perfection. This is not something we have seen hitherto.
He gave away 11 passes and lost the ball in the final third six times – both season highs for him. His seven failed crosses were the second highest of the term. Negative? Yes, a bit, but ultimately no. Why? Because it shows he was putting more risk into his play, taking more chances.
That combination of risk taking, availability and end product earned him my first Bhoy of the Match of the season.
When many of us gorged on content from Japanese and Asian football commentators on Postecoglou and a phalanx of Japanese players arriving, one aspect of culture stood out for me.
Whilst I am reticent to make generalisations about players who will all have their own personalities, some experts spoke of the Japanese football dressing room being one where deference to the senior professionals held sway.
We saw last season that Kyogo Furuhashi, at 27 already a senior professional, stepped up despite injury concerns to shine in the League Cup Final. No one could question the forwards’ overall impact on the team as regards inspiration.
What I have been hoping to see from the younger pair of Reo Hatate and Maeda, is the willingness to take on similar responsibility.
For example, when Callum McGregor was injured, we saw 21-year-old Matt O’Riley step up and, in tricky moments, drive the side forwards notably in securing a late win over Dundee United (4-2).
Maeda’s performance against Hibernian showed a level of confidence, willingness to take responsibility and to add more risk to the game, hitherto only hinted at.
I hope this continues. With Jota scratching for form (0.67 expected scoring contribution per 90m pre injury and 0.46 since), I believe Maeda will be given the starting berth tomorrow and rightly so on form.
Here’s hoping he continues to grow in confidence and recognise he has permission to shine!