The Celtic player making surprise run for player of the year award

Celtic's Daizen Maeda, left, is in a rich vein of form and scored an excellent goal against Hibs.

It is, after all, what he does. Ask any full-back, Chris Cadden of Hibs being the latest to be left in a daze. Maeda is expert at flashing by, seemingly out of nowhere.

And providing he maintains the standard of his recent displays, he might even keep on running to become an outright winner of one of the two main player of the year awards. Why not? Who are the other contenders?

Of those currently in the frame, including Hearts striker Lawrence Shankland, the majority unsurprisingly play in green and white hoops. But is there a stand-out figure among the many excellent options at Celtic Park?

Not yet there isn’t. Cameron Carter-Vickers has been immense at the back, as has Greg Taylor – like Maeda, another under-the-radar-contender. Matt O’Riley, meanwhile, is delivering on the promise shown in the second half of last season and was unfortunate not to make the Denmark World Cup squad. Kyogo Furuhashi must also be involved in the debate having already scored 15 goals despite being injured for a portion of the season.

The same applies to Callum McGregor, who has returned as good as ever from a period on the sidelines and might well repeat his double win of last season. Reo Hatate is another dependably consistent performer. Which brings us to the often-maligned Maeda.

Five goals in his last 11 club appearances, including a stunning strike against Hibs on Wednesday night, has made Maeda an almost certain starter against Rangers on Monday. Indeed, alongside Joe Hart, Carter-Vickers and McGregor, he might be one of the first names on Ange Postecoglou's teamsheet.

Maeda is a player in form. And this is before taking into account his recent World Cup exploits in Qatar with Japan. Although this shouldn't really influence the thinking when considering domestic player of the season awards, how can you ignore Maeda's part in Japan's run to the last 16, via wins over Germany and Spain? He made a mockery of those who questioned manager Hajime Moriyasu's wisdom in taking him over Kyogo and Hatate, Celtic’s other Japanese contenders. The inference was that Maeda was the least-best player of the trio, by some distance. Maeda proved the critics wrong. He is continuing to prove the critics wrong.

It now doesn’t seem outrageous to suggest he could be required to don a bow tie and dinner suit come the end of the season at one or other of the awards’ dinners hosted by both PFA Scotland and the Scottish Football Writers’ Association, perhaps even both. Who knows?

Suggest this a few short weeks ago, and you may have been laughed out of the room – by Celtic fans included. Indeed, even now, the praise he rightly receives from his own supporters is often caveated by a reference to how it often seems that no-one, least of all himself, knows what is coming next. He is off-the-cuff in the extreme. Some Celtic fans are still assessing his worth.

He can be both very bad and very good, sometimes in the space of a few minutes. This was highlighted at Easter Road on Wednesday night when his goal – after he darted in from the left to leave Cadden in his slipstream before letting fly from just under 25 yards – came moments after he had missed what some claimed was an open goal (there were two home defenders on the line when he headed up against the bar).

Maeda is a hive of industry. There will always be times when he leaves himself open to criticism. But he’s the type of player you imagine his teammates love playing with while those who face him will appreciate what he brings to the party. His manager certainly does. Postecoglou couldn’t wait to take him off against Hibs, which says everything about Maeda’s importance to the team ahead of such a significant game as Monday. He will likely be tasked with keeping James Tavernier occupied.

“I obviously coached Daizen in Japan so I knew what I was bringing,” said Postecoglou, after Maeda’s eye-catching performance against Hibs. “He is such a selfless, team player. He just does the stuff that doesn’t often get the recognition. He doesn’t complain, he’s a willing runner for his team. He scored a cracking goal and set up the first one really well. He was a constant threat.

“I don’t underestimate that at all, that quality of being so selfless that you are prepared to give everything for the team every week irrespective of your own personal rewards whether they come or not,” he added.

Maeda will be the last person wasting any time contemplating his own name being added to the list of those such as McGregor, Tavernier and James Forrest, all recent winners, and also Shunsuke Nakamura, the last and, indeed, first Japanese recipient of both player of the year awards in 2006-07. But it's not beyond the realms of possibility.