A relieved Celtic side ended an eight-month Scottish Premiership away win drought as they secured a battling win against Aberdeen thanks to Jota’s late strike. Celtic dominated possession but it was Aberdeen who created the best chances in the game but Celtic were clinical in front of goal and secured all three points. That win changes the narrative for Postecoglou and his players but he will be aware that his side must play better if they establish themselves as title contenders.
Celtic signed Kyogo Furuhashi for a four-year contract in July from Vissel Kobe as they looked to remodel their squad under new manager Ange Postecoglou. The 26-year-old Furuhashi was leading the Japanese league in scoring with 14 goals in 20 games this season.
Let’s take a look at what the stats have to say about his performances:
Furuhashi has scored four goals so far in five appearances for Celtic. These four goals include a hat-trick that he scored against Dundee in his second appearance for the club. The striker has a high goal contribution per 90 minutes of 1.05 since he has only played five teams in the league for Celtic due to an injury that forced him out for almost a month. He also recently scored in their clash against Aberdeen.
Despite playing only for five matches, Furuhashi has attempted a total of eight shots on target and has averaged 2.09 shots on target per 90 minutes. He has a total of 13 attempts on goal, which indicates the striker has a high shot on target percentage and is effective with most of the efforts he takes on the opposition goal.
The above shot map shows us the various position from where Furuhashi has attempted shots on the goal. The Japanese striker has attempted almost all of his shots from inside the box which indicates he is able to find space in the opposition defence to get into these positions in the penalty area to take a shot on goal. As mentioned earlier, he has a high shot on target percentage, which means that there are high chances of him scoring a goal if he is able to get his shots on target from these positions.
Furuhashi has started for Celtic through the centre with wide forwards on both flanks, but his heatmap indicates that the striker prefers to drift towards the left flank in most matches. He has been present in the opposition penalty area but has seen more of the ball on the wider areas of the pitch. Furuhashi possesses the pace needed to beat opposition players and has done so with the dribbles he has attempted in the league. He has attempted 16 dribbles so far in the five matches and has also put in crosses from the left flank. Furuhashi is not only a stand-alone striker who waits for the final ball inside the penalty area, he likes to drift wider and see more of the ball while facing the opposition goal.
The above visual shows us the attacking stats for Furuhashi and the percentile of players who are below him for that particular stat. The visual indicates that Furuhashi has been better than the average performances of the players in the Scottish Premiership in terms of attacking actions performed. He has a high xG per 90 minutes and has attempted approximately three shots per game. As mentioned earlier, he has a very high shot on target percentage and due to this he also has a high xG per shot of 0.26 which is better than 96% of the players in the league. The 26-year old has attempted around 12 attacking actions per 90 minutes and has been able to impose a threat on the opposition defence.
Celtic have faced issues at times when they need a breakthrough but are not able to find one. Kyogo Furuhashi can play a vital part in solving this issue as he is constantly trying to make runs behind the defence which keeps the defence unsettled and gives Celtic a chance to create goalscoring opportunities. Furuhashi has been a valuable addition to the Celtic attack, but due to injury issues was absent from the squad for a month. Now that he is back to full fitness, he can be more involved in Celtic’s fight for the Premiership.
