MARTIN O’NEILL has backed Daizen Maeda to be Celtic’s Old Firm talisman.
The Japanese forward returned to fitness in time for the Premier Sports Cup semi-final.
Maeda, 28, scored three goals against arch-rival’s Rangers last season.
And interim boss O’Neill expects him to play a crucial role at Hampden.
He said: “Maeda is a big player for us, especially at this minute considering some of the players that are out.
“He is absolutely the talisman, there is no question about it.
“He got the last 20-25 minutes of the game against Falkirk because that’s the time the physios were saying he was going to get, which was fine.
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“But he’s a big player for us and he’s been a really good player as I’ve watched from afar.”
Hoops legend O’Neill stepped into the interim role for Celtic after Brendan Rodgers left the club on Monday.
Speaking on Friday, he had yet to hear from his fellow Northern Irishman but took no offence.
And he revealed other ex-Celtic bosses had sent him messages of support.
He added: “I can understand Brendan’s thoughts at this minute might be miles away.
“And I’m not even sure that he and I have got each other’s phone numbers.
“I met him at a Celtic function last time, and for one of the Champions League games last season I came and did a little interview with him.
“Neil Lennon dropped me a wee message and Gordon Strachan too.
“Ange Postecoglou is probably hanging about Australia at the minute.
“I don’t know, but I’m sure it won’t be Celtic he’ll be talking about.
“He’ll be talking about Maranakis at Forest! I would just say to him, ‘I got a longer stretch there than you, mate!’
O’Neill has a simple team-talk planned for Hampden this afternoon and revealed his core message for his players.
He said: “My message would be one, remember what you are representing for a start, and two, be up to the task. This is a big task. But just be up to it.
“Sometimes these games do come down to mentality, absolutely.
“Going into this, it was important for us to win against Falkirk, which was obviously the most important thing. But we also got a few goals and the players got a bit of confidence.
“I thought some of the play was pretty decent.”
O’Neill has inherited a multi-national squad from Rodgers, but feels he’s had total buy-in — even if some of his wisdom is lost in the translation for the likes of Marcelo Saracchi.
He added: “When I had team talks in the early days at Celtic, even the Swedish players could speak English.
“Lubo Moravcik might have found it difficult, but outside of that, they could understand it.
“Here now, there might be one or two who struggle.
“For instance, the little Uruguayan fella can’t speak a word of English, or very little English. But he’s a nice kid. And he’s dogged, isn’t he?
“I sat at the table with him on Friday and Jota was in.
“He can speak a few languages, so he was doing the interpreting.
“Wee Jota said to me, ‘Do you know gaffer, when you first met the players and had that little talk, and asked if everybody understood, Marcelo nodded his head, but he didn’t get it’!”
O’Neill had originally planned to watch today’s game from the comfort of his home in England.
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But he said: “I would seldom miss this game on TV and I had planned to watch it on Sunday.
“It would be ridiculous for me to say that I got as passionate about it as I was as a manager.”
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