Celtic got themselves a 4-0 win over Motherwell in their last outing. It was a good bounce-back result after drawing to Dundee United and proved to be a great one when the Rangers lost to St Mirren on the matchday. That meant that the Hoops now hold a 12-point lead in the Scottish Premiership title race. The biggest gap of the season so far.
One key decision that Brendan Rodgers made on the day was leaving Kyogo on the bench and giving a start to Adam Idah. And that has raised some questions about Celtic's striker situation right now.
Neither Kyogo nor Idah is scoring regularly enough at the moment to be very honest. The Japanese striker has looked like a shadow of his former self since Rodgers replaced Ange Postecoglou as the Celtic manager.
So why was Kyogo left on the bench against Motherwell? Was it because of his lack of goals lately? Well, it looks like it was just a matter of keeping things fresh up top. As reported by 67 Hail Hail, Rodgers told BBC:
"We’re trying to bring as much freshness, especially in the middle to the front end of the pitch.
“I think we missed that sharpness against Dundee United and we hope we can take it up a level today and get the early goal that can open up the opponent."
Real reason Celtic boss dropped Kyogo Furuhashi
In the 2022/23 season, Kyogo scored 34 goals. He might have managed a similar number in the campaign before that if not for injury problems but still got 20. In comparison, he has scored a combined 27 in a season-and-a-half of playing under the management of Rodgers so far.
There is no doubt that Kyogo is a fantastic player and someone who has proven himself in big games time and again. But right now, in this system, he is not playing at his best.
On the other hand, Idah has not been particularly impressive either. However, one must point out that the Irishman has pretty much played the role of a backup striker and perhaps needs more consistent game time to find his rhythm in front of the goal.