Celtic lacked bite in the final third as they dropped points against Dundee United on Sunday.
For only the second time this season, Brendan Rodgers watched his players fail to win, which in truth, if you offered fans at the start of the season, they would have accepted with a smile on their face.
But that doesn’t hide the fact that Celtic just didn’t look like themselves against Dundee United and there were reasons behind it.
First of all, Rodgers made serval changes, many forced, which disrupted the XI and meant that the fringe players didn’t have the rhythm and speed to showcase what they were all about.
But that wasn’t such an excuse for someone like Kyogo Furuhashi.
Michael Stewart baffled by Kyogo Furuhashi’s miss as Celtic draw against Dundee United
Even with Celtic looking off-colour, they still should and could have walked away from Tannadice with the three points.
The biggest opportunity came when Adam Idah flicked a lovely ball around the corner for Kyogo to go through one-v-one.
But never mind hit the target, Kyogo hardly got contact on the ball and Michael Stewart was clear by stating that ‘I can’t really fathom’ why that happened, as he told Sportscene.
“Sometimes, when the game is so congested like that,” said Stewart. “This is great play through the middle and it’s the obvious big opportunity late on in the game.
“For me, I can’t really fathom why Kyogo hasn’t struck that there because it looks like to me that he has got his body set perfectly just to guide the ball with his left foot into the bottom corner there. I don’t know (if the ball) comes across his body a little too quickly.”
Kyogo’s stats for Celtic this season
Idah was purchased for big money in the summer and you suspect he will earn his starts over this winter period.
Celtic’s showdown with Rangers is around the corner and if Kyogo still isn’t firing, then Rodgers has a big call to make.
Yes, the Japan star is the king in the Glasgow derbies, but if truth be told, he hasn’t looked himself of late and needs to find the back of the net as soon as possible.
As posted by Transfermarkt, he has six goals from 15 Premiership matches, which to his high standards, is a drop-off from previous campaigns.
| Competition | Apps | Goals | Assists | Minutes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Premiership | 15 | 6 | 3 | 958′ |
 | UEFA Champions League | 6 | 1 | – | 393′ |
 | League Cup | 2 | 1 | – | 145′ |
| Total 24/25: | 23 | 8 | 3 | 1.496′ | |
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