Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers praises Daizen Maeda’s thirst for learning

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers praised Daizen Maeda’s thirst for learning after the striker collected his second consecutive monthly award.

Maeda claimed the William Hill Premiership player of the month prize after hitting five goals in four matches in March.

The 27-year-old notched his 30th goal of the season last weekend and has scored 15 goals in 12 games since Kyogo Furuhashi’s departure saw him switch from a wide to a predominantly central role.

There was previously a touch of unpredictability about Maeda’s end product and the consistency and assuredness of his finishing in recent weeks has been striking.

Rodgers feels confidence and being more relaxed in front of goal have played a part, but also unseen work behind the scenes.

“There’s a wee bit of everything there really,” the Celtic manager said ahead of Sunday’s trip to face St Johnstone.

“He works closely with Jack Lyons here, one of our young coaches who will focus individually on some of the details on that and what we see in him.

“He’s also very coachable and he’s a great learner and that’s what you want in your players.

“You can have players that are very good players but they’re not very coachable. But his ability to learn is also what has helped him.

“So he gets pointed out items with all the coaches and we’ll speak to him as a manager and Jack will do specific stuff with him as well. But all of that he’s shown an ability to learn and so that’s always a good sign.”

Rodgers added: “Being in the middle of the goal means he’s making different runs. He’s not where he’s ended up crossing a lot on the left-hand side.

“He’s not always in the positions he would be as a central striker but I think we’ve seen that he can make all the moves and do everything you want in that position.

“His movement, pace, technical ability, but also the hunger and pressing is massive for an attacking team and he’s playing ever so well and consistently well.”