Kyogo Furuhashi has received plenty of praise over the past week after his heroics in the Glasgow Derby and Celtic legend Lisbon Lion Willie Wallace is the latest to applaud the Japanese forward.
Celtic picked up a vital 3-2 win over Rangers on Saturday thanks to a brace from Kyogo and Jota’s second-half effort.
Kyogo is proving to be a man for the big occasions as he’s netted five times in his last three Glasgow Derby appearances.
But it isn’t just the 28-year-old’s keen eye for goal that’s impressed Celtic legend Willie Wallace, it’s also his tireless energy off the ball.
Willie Wallace hails ‘outstanding’ Kyogo
Speaking to The Scottish Sun, Willie Wallace feels that Kyogo’s excellent work-rate allows Ange Postecoglou’s men to ‘dominate’ their opponents.
“When I first saw Kyogo, I thought he would be a Jinky-type forward,” he said. “He’s small, quick, full of skill and he can finish, too. He’s been outstanding for Ange and Celtic.
“Kyogo hasn’t taken long to get close to that 50 mark and he deserves to join all the great players in doing that. Bert Herdman, my old Raith Rovers manager, used to have a saying about strikers like Kyogo. He would say, ‘He’s only got one trick, and that’s scoring goals!’.
“You just look at Kyogo at the weekend — he got three chances and he put them all away. The first one was offside, but he came back for more and his two goals were deadly.
“Kyogo’s movement is excellent around the box. He finished off the cutback really well for the first and then he was sharp for the second. That shows he is an all-round striker.
“He can score different types of goals, but he’s also a team player. He works so hard for Celtic in attack and that’s a big reason for the way they can dominate teams.”
It’s brilliant for Kyogo to have a legend such as Willie Wallace signing his praises as the Scotsman was also a lethal goalscorer himself for the Hoops.
The Celtic legend makes a great point that it isn’t just Kyogo’s goals that benefit Postecoglou’s side as he is often their first line of defence too.
He’s proving to be Ange’s standout signing so far and he looks set to score more than 30 in all competitions this season.
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