Kyogo Furuhashi fails to impress despite Celtic win | OneFootball

With Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic side heading into Saturday’s fixture on the back of securing their first away win of the 2021/22 campaign last time out, the manager will have undoubtedly been hoping for more of the same when the Hoops made the trip to Fir Park today.

Goals either side of half-time from Jota and David Turnbull ensured that the 56-year-old would not be disappointed, with Celtic running out 2-0 winners against Graham Alexander’s Motherwell.

However, despite the win, Postecoglou may well be concerned about the performance of Kyogo Furuhashi, as the Japan international endured a pretty abject afternoon while leading the Celtic line.

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Fewer touches than Hart

Having scored eight goals over 11 appearances in all competitions prior to the Motherwell game, Kyogo has already demonstrated since his summer move to Celtic that he is undoubtedly a forward capable of doing a job up front for the Bhoys.

However, while his below-par display on Saturday could perhaps be blamed on a lack of service, ultimately the statistics do not lie – and the 26-year-old’s performance from a statistical point of view do not make pretty reading for the striker.

Indeed, over his 82 minutes on the pitch, the £1.8m-rated man had just one shot at the Motherwell goal, only 16 touches of the ball – 27 fewer than Joe Hart between the Celtic sticks – and completed a mere seven passes, as per SofaScore.

The player who Postecoglou labelled a “positive” character also lost three of his five duels, won only one tackle and lost possession of the ball on five separate occasions.

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These returns saw the Japan international earn a disappointing SofaScore match rating of 6.6, the lowest received by any Celtic player to start the game.

As such, while Postecoglou will certainly be delighted with another three points on the road, the performance of Kyogo could well be a cause for concern for the 56-year-old, as the striker badly let his manager down against Motherwell this afternoon.