Just like Vardy- Schlupp pays tribute to exceptional team-mate

Jeffrey Schlupp has compared Daizen Maeda to Jamie Vardy, admitting that the two strikers have very similar games.

The on loan defender knows Vardy as well as anyone having the former England striker as a team-mate at Leicester City and an opponent at Crystal Palace.

This season looks like being one too many for Vardy but while his star fades Maeda is enjoying the season of his life at Celtic with yesterday’s double against Hearts taking his total for the season to 30.

Up until Kyogo Furuhashi was sold to Rennes in January Maeda was almost exclusively used on the left wing, since the turn of the year he has scored 17 goals in 17 appearances as Celtic close in on a treble triumph.

Schlupp didn’t join Celtic until the end of January but over the course of two months he has seen the full impact of Maeda, reminding him of one of the legendary EPL strikers.

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Whenever you have got someone like Daizen up front he is always a threat.

We always try and get work the ball through the lines to get him some passes in behind and today he got a couple of goals which was great for us.

He is on fire. Credit to him and to the team as well because we are providing him with the chances that he is putting away. You can see how hard he works out there. He doesn’t leave anything in the tank and it is showing, the quality.

He is class, he makes a lot of things easier for us. Sometimes when you are in a bit of trouble you can put a ball in an area and he is going to get on to it. It is always great to know you have somebody like that. We like to pass the ball and having someone with that threat up top is great for us.

Vards (Jamie Vardy) and him have very similar games, yeah. He is another workhorse who can turn an average ball into a great ball which is what Daizen does. Hopefully he can keep it going.