Celtic continue to go from strentgh to strength under Brendan Rodgers.
It has been a productive week for the club, Celtic picked up a valuable point against Atalanta and then backed it up on Sunday by returning to the top of the Scottish Premiership table.
Celtic’s 3-0 win over Motherwell means that they leapfrog title rivals Aberdeen after their win over Dundee United the day before.
Regardless of the result or performance, sometimes those European away games can take a lot out of you, but the Bhoys made sure that wasn’t the case here.
Several changes were made from that Italy trip, including captain Callum McGregor absent through injury and Kyogo Furuhashi coming in for Adam Idah.
That goes to show the level of quality Rodgers has to pick from when you can rotate two high-quality strikers in such a fashion.
Kyogo didn’t get on the scoresheet, but as Neil Lennon’s comments proved, he deserved his flowers for his efforts.
Neil Lennon says he ‘loves watching’ Kyogo Furuhashi playing for Celtic after win over Motherwell
Already a club legend, Kyogo has been immense for the Scottish giants ever since Ange Postecoglou brought him over from Vissel Kobe in 2021.
One of the big traits of the 29-year-old’s game is his off the ball movement and Lennon wanted to highlight it when Alistair Johnston scored Celtic’s second goal of the game.
Lennon described Kyogo as ‘super-intelligent’ and how he just ‘loves watching him play’ when he dons those green and white colours, as he told Sky Sports Football (27/10/24 at 5:10 pm).
“Not just really important, but super intelligent,” said Lennon about Kyogo’s runs. “I love watching him play and his movement off the ball.
“Whether it be, he comes short and spins in behind. But, even at that moment, you could see him running across the face of the six-yard box to leave for someone to come in. Normally, it’s an eight, but it was Alistair Johnston.
“That’s what Celtic tend to do. They wear you down. Just pass you to death until you are fatigued, then they pick up the speed of the passing around the box and they are so good at it. And they are clinical.”
Kyogo’s stats for Celtic against Motherwell
It isn’t a surprise that Kyogo, like always, is super consistent for the team and it is still showing under Rodgers’ stewardship.
For the campaign so far, WhoScored have rated Kyogo bang on the money of 7.00 out of ten, with seven goal involmnets to his name.
Idah will be pushing Kyogo for a full season this time around and it will be interesting to see how that battle plays out.
| Tournament | Apps | Mins | Goals | Assists | Shots per game | Dribbles | PS% | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Premiership | 7(2) | 587 | 4 | 3 | 3.6 | 0.3 | 71.4 | 7.13 |
| Champions League | 2(1) | 162 | 1 | – | 1.7 | 58.8 | 6.61 | |
| Total / Average | 12 | 749 | 5 | 3 | 3.1 | 0.3 | 68.3 | 7.00 |
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