Celtic coach John Kennedy has been in praise of star man Kyogo Furuhashi as he reflected on the strikers season so far.
The 28-year-old forward has been in terrific form for Ange Postecoglou’s side this season and will be hoping to end the campaign with a bang.
So far, he has racked up a fantastic 22 goals for the Hoops which includes 19 of those in the Scottish Premiership and the most recent of those came in the 4-1 victory over St Johnstone on Sunday.
He scored 20 goals during his first season in Scottish football even though he missed a lot of action after Christmas.
Kyogo was Postecoglou’s first signing from the J-League in the summer of 2021 from Vissel Kobe and his desire to stick to the managers game plan is what Kennedy believes sets him apart from the rest within the squad and is the reason why he keeps on scoring.
Some of the runs which he makes during matches are unbelievable and as the midfield behind him continue to come into form, the chemistry between both has been very difficult for opposition teams to defend against.
“He’s a terrific player, we’ve seen that from the minute he walked through the door. We’d heard about him before he came and straight away he hit the ground running here and he’s never looked back,” said Kennedy speaking to [Celtic TV].
“Even in times when he’s not been as fluid in front of goal and times when the goals have been flying in, his game doesn’t change. That’s the beauty of it. Sometimes what happens is strikers go out of form, they don’t score in a couple of games and they go searching, they go looking for things. Kyogo sticks to the same plan all the time.
“First and foremost he does his job for the team, he presses really hard, he puts the defenders under a lot of pressure and he constantly gives us the out with his movement. He’s terrific. The boys now know his game and that’s the evolution of the team. As they play more with each other, they understand each other. They train with each other every day.
“They don’t have to spend so much time thinking about things because they know what’s going to happen, they know where he’s going to be so they can put the ball into areas without looking half the time. Top player, top individual in terms of how he trains and as a professional, and he’s getting his just rewards for it at the moment.
“He’s a very humble guy. He appreciates what the fans offer the team and him himself. He takes a great lift from scoring in front of the crowd, you see he’s straight over to the crowd at the end of the games. He’s usually the one up front leading the party but he’s not like that at all.
“He goes around the training ground, he’s very quiet on the training pitch. He works ever so hard like the rest of them do and just gets on with his business but that’s testament to the type of character he is.”
There’s no doubt that he has been a terrific addition to the squad and is well on his way to scoring at least 30 goals for the Hoops this season.
Many would like to see his freescoring form in domestic football translate into the Champions League as he and other players were guilty of missing great chances in the competition.
