Michael Stewart suggests Celtic made a mistake selling 28-year-old after draw against Motherwell

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Michael Stewart has highlighted Celtic’s issues in attack when Kyogo Furuhashi isn’t firing for Brendan Rodgers’ side.

Hyeongyu Oh is the back-up player to Celtic’s main man up top and Michael Stewart feels the difference between the South Korean star and the now departed Giorgos Giakoumakis is ‘staring you in the face’, as he told BBC Sport.

This comes after Brendan Rodgers watched his side drop valuable points at home to Motherwell on Saturday, including Luis Palma missing a first-half penalty – Callum McGregor was pretty clear in his analysis.

Hyeongyu Oh came on at the break but he was unable to disrupt a well-organised Motherwell and Stuart Kettlewell defence.

In truth, the team shot itself in the foot by not converting the first-half penalty and then letting Motherwell equalise only minutes after David Turnbull’s spot-kick.

It was a day to forget for the team and Stewart shared his thoughts on Celtic’s forward line. 

Hyeongyu Oh and Giorgos Giakoumakis

“There’s no question Celtic should have won the game, but they didn’t,” said Stewart.

“They don’t have that same strength in depth as they did. They were without Hatate, Maeda and Johnston today.

“Oh Hyeon-gyu is the fallback guy when they’re looking at something different or Kyogo isn’t firing on all cylinders. 

“He’s had a lot of chances and he doesn’t score enough goals. The difference between him and [Giorgos] Giakoumakis is staring you in the face.”

Giorgos Giakoumakis after Celtic’s exit

You can’t blame the 28-year-old for leaving because it was all for good intentions. He wanted first-team minutes and he wasn’t going to get ahead of Kyogo.

But that shouldn’t hide the quality and goals he brought to the table while playing that back up role.

Now in the MLS, he has been flying for Atlanta United, including winning the MLS Newcomer award ahead of Lionel Messi.

Playing minutes here and there is very difficult, so Oh can’t be criticised in that sense because even Kyogo would struggle if he played sporadically.