Simo Valakari insists St Johnstone should relish task of facing Daizen Maeda

Simo Valakari believes his St Johnstone defenders should relish the task of shackling Celtic’s star striker Daizen Maeda on Sunday.

The Japan international has scored 30 goals in all competitions this season for the William Hill Premiership champions-elect and is one of the front runners to be named player of the year.

Maeda, who took over the centre-forward role vacated by fellow countryman Kyogo Furuhashi, who moved to French side Rennes in January, scored in the 6-0 win at McDiarmid Park in September and the 4-0 win over St Johnstone at Parkhead in December and has scored in the last six games for the Hoops.

Saints boss Valakari knows he will have to be taken care of in Perth if the league’s bottom side have any chance of a positive result to breathe life into hopes of escaping relegation.

Valakari said: “What a player but it’s Celtic’s collective structure that brings the best out of the players.

“You need to be tight with him, but how is it possible because you go too tight, he will exploit the space.

“If you let him run freely, he will exploit the space but it’s about communications, and one-versus-one defending, it’s a skill of picking up in the box where he makes his movements.

“As a defender you want to have these challenges.

“You want to play against maybe the player of the year and say, okay, let’s see what he does, how I can try to stop him?

“That’s why we should go into this match with our eyes bright and heart like this (pumping) and say okay, let’s go.

“Then, we need the points because of the situation we are in, so it doesn’t matter who we play.”

St Johnstone defender Barry Douglas insists he is excited about the prospect of taking on Celtic.

The 35-year-old said: “We’re under no false pretences. It’s going to be a difficult game.

“But these are the games that you want to play in and test yourself and show what you are made of. It’s exciting as cliche as that sounds.

“As underdogs you are already kind of written off, so there’s no reason not to go and play and express yourself. With all respect to Celtic, it’s just another football game.

“So if we have any kind of nerves or focus on them not as much as ourselves, then it will be a disaster.

“Look, of course it’s a big challenge, there’s no false pretences, it’s going to be a really difficult game, especially with what’s at stake for them and what’s a stake for ourselves.

“But we just need to give the best account of ourselves, hope they have a real off day and hope that everything that we work on kind of clicks.”