{"id":188710,"date":"2025-06-16T10:11:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-16T10:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/188710\/"},"modified":"2025-06-16T10:11:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-16T10:11:10","slug":"celtic-target-hayato-inamuras-top-three-j-league-stats-as-brendan-rodgers-makes-surprise-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/188710\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtic target Hayato Inamura’s top three J League stats as Brendan Rodgers makes ‘surprise’ move"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Celtic are reportedly interested in J League defender Hayato Inamura.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 23-year-old defender has apparently caught the eye of Brendan Rodgers<\/a> as the Celtic manager<\/a> looks to bring in cover for Kieran Tierney.<\/p>\n

Celtic unveiled Tierney<\/a> last week, and with Greg Taylor widely expected to make his Parkhead exit imminently, Rodgers desperately needs cover on that left side of the defensive four.<\/p>\n

And it appears that Inamura has emerged as a \u2018surprise\u2019 transfer target as reports suggest Celtic could be shopping in the J League once again.<\/p>\n

\"NagoyaPhoto by Masashi Hara\/Getty ImagesCeltic \u2018working on a surprise move\u2019 for Albirex Niigata\u2019s Hayato Inamura<\/p>\n

Hayato Inamura is predominantly a left-sided central-defender who can also play at left-back. And Stephen McGowan reckons Celtic are looking to bring him to the east end of Glasgow.<\/p>\n

McGowan writes in The Herald<\/a>, \u201cCeltic are working on a surprise move for Japanese defender Hayato Inamura.<\/p>\n

\u201cCurrently playing for Albirex Niigata the 23-year-old primarily plays as a left-sided centre-back but can also provide cover at left full-back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Albirex Niigata are currently struggling in the J League so why are Celtic targeting a defender who is part of a relegation-threatened J League side?<\/p>\n

Hayato Inamura\u2019s top three J League stats make Celtic interest confusing<\/p>\n

Being a central defender in a struggling team in the J League, Celtic fans would assume that Inamura\u2019s top three stats would be in the defensive realm, right? <\/p>\n

Apparently not. Here are Inamura\u2019s complete stats from the J League\u2019s official website<\/a> including his surprise top three in bold:<\/p>\n\nHayato Inamura J League stats<\/td>\nTotal<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAverage number of touches<\/strong> (6th in J League)<\/td>\n79.4<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAverage number of passes per game<\/td>\n12.1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAverage number of passes in own half per game<\/strong> (3rd in J League)<\/td>\n59.5%<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAverage number of long passes per game<\/strong> (18th in J League)<\/td>\n11.6<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nLong pass success rate<\/td>\n45.3%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAssists<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAverage number of crosses per game<\/td>\n0.3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAverage number of chances created per game<\/td>\n0.3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAverage number of tackles per game<\/td>\n1.8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAir duel win rate<\/td>\n59%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAverage interceptions per game<\/td>\n0.1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nTackle success rate<\/td>\n85.7%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Those stats don\u2019t scream Celtic defender to me and it appears that as cover for Tierney, Celtic are very much looking at a project player.<\/p>\n

If that is the case, sure there is a player currently in the Celtic Academy<\/a> or out on loan like Matthew Anderson who could do just as well as Inamura?<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Celtic are reportedly interested in J League defender Hayato Inamura. The 23-year-old defender has apparently caught the eye…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[94,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-188710","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114692507771447418","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}