Daizen Maeda could hold the key to Celtic’s performance at Ibrox this afternoon.

The versatile Japanese internationalist is unlikely to usurp the recently prolific Giorgos Giakoumakis for the central striker’s berth but could be deployed in a wide position with a view to putting the shackles on James Tavernier in order to prevent any penetrative forward incursions.

The Rangers full-back has claimed 14 assists so far this term and with an open encounter anticipated – Rangers need to win and Celtic will go for the jugular in keeping with Ange Postecoglou’s philosophy – restricting the delivery of Tavernier could blunt the Ibrox side’s attacking prowess.
Maeda stepped back from international duty amid “fitness issues” but has a clean bill of health ahead of this afternoon’s meeting.  

“Last week he was a bit under the weather so if it was last weekend he would probably have missed it but he has trained all week so he is fine,” said Postecoglou.  

“Obviously I coached Daizen for a year and I knew what I was getting. He has this tremendous capacity for work and doing some of the things that are difficult for a lot of footballers to do – not just from a physical perspective but mentally too. 

“He is forever trying to close down opponents. 

“That’s the point of difference between him and a lot of attacking players and it’s why I was so keen to bring him in. 

“It’s no secret I wanted to bring him last summer but with the position Yokohama were in at the time, going for the championship, I knew I would probably not get him until January. 

“He is giving everything I expected him to give and there is more there. He is the kind of guy who wants to keep improving. 

“But the appetite he has for pressuring the opposition and the physical capacity he has for that – it’s not easy. It’s not just about fitness, it’s about being about being able to repeat effort and that is something different compared to the other attacking players we have.”
Postecoglou’s side were beaten on their last visit to Ibrox with Celtic almost unrecognisable since that afternoon at the end of August. Odsonne Edouard and Ryan Christie started while it was a back four of Anthony Ralston, Carl Starfelt, Stephen Welsh and Josip Juranovic. Two from that quarter are liable to start this afternoon with a win for Celtic effectively enabling them to put a firm grip on the Premiership title.
Postecoglou declared a clean bill of health in his squad for the trip across the city – something else that was missing for much of the opening half of the season – and it will be interesting to see if the talismanic Kyogo Furuhashi is involved at any stage.
The Japanese internationalist has been injured since a Boxing Day trip to Perth against St Johnstone but any contribution from him would be a significant boost for Celtic. Rangers, by contrast, are missing Alfredo Morelos. The Colombian’s record against the Parkhead side may invite scorn from the Celtic support but a return of 19 goals this term suggests that he will be a significant loss for Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side.
What Rangers will have, however, is the vocal backing of a home support who appreciate how significant the outcome of this afternoon is in shaping the title race. 

Celtic’s best chance of muting a 50,000 strong support is by playing well, with Postecoglou applauding the mentality that has been revealed in his team over the course of the campaign. 

“When you think about what we have had to deal with this year, and the position we are in right now, we’ve proved to be a pretty resilient group of players,” he said. “You can’t do that unless you have a really strong mentality and tackled every challenge in the right way. 

“That doesn’t guarantee you success but it does mean you give yourselves a chance of success in every game. The players have a really strong sense of purpose about the type of football we want to play and the type of team we want to be.
“No-one can say that this group of players have had an easy run at any stage this year. Every game has been tough and when you come through those circumstances, those are the things you need to rely on moving forward. 

“You just have to look at the line-up on our first visit to Ibrox. We had players who were literally transferred down south straight after the game. 

We knew they were going but that was the line-up we had to put out that day. Again, we didn’t make excuses, we understood that people would measure our progress on results and we knew that we had to improve that.” 

David Turnbull could find himself featuring at some stage this afternoon too. The midfielder was a perennial in the Celtic midfielder this term until his injury in the League Cup final in December. It adds up to a significantly strong bench this afternoon for the Parkhead side.
“Having Dave Turnbull is fantastic because he was such an important part of the first part of the year,” said Postecoglou. 

“From my perspective it all means that whatever challenges we face on Sunday we have some options to come off the bench. I think it’s helped in our recent form because we have finished strongly in all our games because of the fact I am putting on some real quality players who are becoming embedded in the principles of our play. 

“That will help us because we haven’t been relying on just one or two. It’ll fair to say in the front part of the year we had to rely on one or two like Kyogo and Dave Turnbull in an attacking sense particularly. Right now we have multiple threats, multiple creative avenues and defensively we have some really good options if I need to change it.”