Chris Sutton believes that Kyogo Furuhashi and Giorgos Giakoumakis can share equally Celtic’s striking needs going into the new season.
Both strikers missed big chunks of last season but appear to be warming up nicely for the new campaign as Banik Ostrava discovered in midweek.
Hyogo converted a cut-back from James Forrest to equalise while Giakoumakis swivelled spectacularly to hook home a Tony Ralston cross early in the second half.
In the final domestic game of last season Kyogo scored twice in an hour with Giakoumakis coming off the bench to match that in the final half hour.
A year ago coping with life Post Edouard was the biggest issue facing Ange Postecoglou but Sutton believes that sharing can be caring in the new season to give domestic opponents a double dunt as Postecoglou looks to kick on from last season.
In the Daily Record, Sutton explains:
You look at last season, Kyogo was sensational in the first half of the campaign while Giakoumakis arrived late then got injured. Then when Kyogo was out, Giakoumakis was available and seized his chance in superb style. Both players contributed hugely to Celtic’s title success and while they were around at the same time at the tail end of term, it’s only now you can say they are really fit and firing together.
It’s an outstanding conundrum for Postecoglou and it will allow him to be flexible with his line ups and the way Celtic play. It will be who is best suited to each game on a weekly basis. He can keep rivals guessing because the two of them are so different.
Kyogo is all about pace and movement, playing on the shoulder and spinning in behind. Giakoumakis can throw his weight around, hold the ball up, get in to the box and finish. How do you prepare for that if both are available for selection? You work all week on dealing with Kyogo, then Giakoumakis appears to bully defenders. Or vice versa. You go with a strong centre back partnership to deal with the physical threat – and you end up chasing shadows with Kyogo buzzing around.
Celtic don’t have one main striker now – they’ve got two. Daizen Maeda is there too, but you have to say he’s looked more of a threat in the wide areas than through the middle, as he’s not quite as natural a finisher as the other two. And who is to say it will be one of the other with Kyogo and Giakoumakis anyway? Postecoglou could play both.
After a gentle fixture run through August with only midweek fixtures the calendar is packed through September and October before the five week breather for the World Cup Finals in Qatar.
