IF Cameron Carter-Vickers still needed any confirmation about how much of an impact his Celtic team mate Daizen Maeda has made in Europe this season he received it after the Bayern Munich game last week.
Carter-Vickers caught up with Eric Dier, who he played alongside during his time at Spurs, following the 1-1 draw with the German giants in the Allianz Arena.
All the England internationalist could speak about was the Japanese winger.
Dier revealed that he and his fellow Bayern players had all been bowled over by the personal performances that Maeda had produced in both legs of the Champions League last 16 double header.
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“I was actually talking to Eric Dier after we played Bayern and he said after the first leg all the Bayern players were talking about Daizen, about how much he runs and how much energy he puts into a game,” said Carter-Vickers. “It is incredible.”
“We were just having a general chat about the two games and he just said after the first leg they got the running stats put up in their changing room. Everyone was talking about how much high-speed distance he did. It is crazy.
“We get all the stats in terms of high-speed running and sprint distances and he is always top of the charts for all that. His work rate is incredible. He outworks defenders, is always on the move, is hard to pick up. He is a threat.”
Maeda produced another standout display in the 5-1 win over Aberdeen at Parkhead on Tuesday night – he scored two goals to take his tally for the 2024/25 campaign for club and country to 26.
“His first goal against Aberdeen came from nothing,” he said. “He is the only one alive in the box and he taps it home. He has scored a few goals like that recently. It is definitely a big help to the team.
“I’m not really surprised how well he’s done at striker, to be fair. He is an intelligent football player. We know he can play on the wing or through the middle. For Japan he plays through the middle so he has definitely got that know how. No, I am not too surprised.
“I wouldn’t say I’ve seen an improvement in him. But he has definitely been peaking at the moment, whether that is fitness wise I don’t know. He is always on the move, always running. I don’t know if he is improving. We always knew he had that quality and he is showing it now.
“Physically, in terms of his running power and capacity, I don’t know if anyone in the squad could get to that level to be honest. I think it is something unique to him that he has naturally. But when you see a guy working that hard it definitely makes you want to work that hard and put in a shift as well. So in that way it helps, yeah.”
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Rodgers admitted after the Aberdeen triumph that he expects Maeda’s form to be attracting attention from clubs around Europe - but Carter-Vickers is optimistic Celtic can hold on to a forward who is as entertaining off the park as he is on it.
“I don’t know what is going on in his head, but he seems to be enjoying his football at the moment and he is great to have around the training ground and stuff,” he said. “He definitely seems happy to me, but I am not him.
Carter-Vickers and his fellow Celtic defenders also acquitted themselves well against Aberdeen – but the United States internationalist confessed the last-minute goal they allowed Shayden Morris to score had irked them and stressed they are keen to do better at the back in their remaining fixtures.
“It was annoying,” he said as he turned his attention to the Premiership encounter with St Mirren in Paisley on Saturday evening. “You obviously do want to keep clean sheets, especially as a defender. It is something we will look at and try and improve on. When you win 5-1 you can’t have too many complaints, but we obviously want to play well and grow as a team.
“We have 10 games left and we want to win all of them and perform well in all of them. Our focus going into each game will be trying to perform at our maximum.”
