It’s no secret that Kyogo Furuhashi has not been playing his best football at Celtic under Brendan Rodgers this season.
The Japan international has struggled to recapture the goalscoring form that made him the most feared striker in Scotland over the past two seasons.
With 15 goals to his name this season, Celtic supporters have seen over the past two fixtures glimpses that Kyogo is on his way back to his poaching best.
However, it was a tactical tweak that Simon Donnelly spotted in the weekend’s win over St Johnstone that showed how Brendan Rodgers is trying to get the best out of his Japanese talisman as the title race draws to its close.
Celtic now playing to Kyogo’s strengths
The fact that Kyogo has two goals called offside on Saturday has shown just how direct Celtic are being in trying to find the international striker.
Too often this season the attacking phase of play has been extremely methodical but Donnelly saw a change to that against Craig Levein‘s side at the weekend.
Donnelly said [Superscoreboard], “He was off form before the weekend and that can happen. And certainly, for the weekend he pops up with the two offside goals.
“He was getting into positions. There was a hunger with him. And sometimes you don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes.
“But I just thought he was back looking like the Kyogo that we’ve seen over the last two seasons.
“His movement is great. There was one on Saturday that he made and there was a big bit of space and Tomoki never gave him it. I don’t know if you saw it.
“We were in the gantry, and you can see it all. But I definitely think there was more onus on them [Celtic] trying to get him in behind them at the weekend.”
Celtic were definitely looking to get balls quicker to Kyogo from not only the wide areas but also from midfield.
The Japanese was looking really sharp and had it not been for VAR intervention then he almost certainly would have had a hattrick.
It does look like the 29-year-old is getting back to his best and the timing of that couldn’t be better. With just nine games left to go in the title race, Celtic need Kyogo firing on all cylinders if they are to successfully defend their title.