This afternoon, the gifted forward should be used right away by the head coach of the Hoops.
This afternoon, Celtic will resume their top-tier activities as they get ready to host St. Johnstone in the Scottish Premiership at Parkhead.
The Hoops enter this game fresh off a 4-2 SFA Cup victory over Livingston, which guaranteed a semi-final meeting with Aberdeen the following month.
The Scottish powerhouses took a 3-2 lead thanks to a hat-trick from Daizen Maeda, and then Yogo Furuhashi scored the game’s fourth goal after coming off the bench.
Now that they are back in league play, Brendan Rodgers might want to make some alterations to the starting lineup that faced Livingston. In light of this, the Northern Ireland manager needs to forcefully remove Adam Idah from the starting lineup so that Kyogo may get started.
Why Adam Idah ought to be fired
The Norwich City loanee scored five goals and provided an assist in his first six games across all competitions, enjoying a fantastic start to his life in Glasgow.
Idah’s performance for the Hoops in the Premiership and SFA Cup against Hearts and Livingston, respectively, has been lackluster in his previous two games.
When the score was 1-1 in the first half, he had his greatest opportunity to score against Livi when a deflected cross from Alistair Johnston found the center forward, but he was unable to get the ball past the experienced Michael McGovern in goal.
In contrast, the £23k-per-week forward had numerous chances to score during the 2-0 loss to Hearts. Zander Clark stopped his feeble attempt to convert a penalty in the thirteenth minute, and he also squandered another “big chance” later in the game.
Even if the Canaries academy graduate has had a great start to life in Scotland, Rodgers needs to mercilessly bench the player and replace him with Kyogo today because he has zero goals, zero assists, and two “big chances” squandered in two games.
Why Kyogo ought to begin the Celtics game
The Japan international hasn’t played at his greatest level yet this season, but in recent weeks, he has improved, therefore he ought to start against St. Johnstone.
In the previous Premiership season, Kyogo averaged a goal every 86 minutes (27 in 31 starts). However, in the 2023–24 campaign, he has only averaged one goal per 213 minutes (nine in 23 starts).
| 23/24 Premiership | Kyogo Furuhashi |
|---|---|
| Appearances | 29 |
| Starts | 23 |
| Goals | 9 |
| Big chances missed | 15 |
| Pass accuracy | 66% |
| Stats via Sofascore | |
But in his last 304 minutes of activity across the last six games in all competitions, the 29-year-old striker has given up three goals, or one per 101 minutes on average.
In stoppage time, he came off the bench to score against Livingston after deftly timing his move to latch onto James Forrest’s flick-on and clinically found the bottom left corner of the goal.
Despite his seasonal troubles, the Celtic whiz—whomate Joe Hart once called “exceptional”—has been in fine goalscoring form of late. Rodgers should reward that by starting him this afternoon ahead of Idah, who has blanked the last two games.
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