11th October 2026; Fir Park, Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, Scotland; Scottish Premiership Football, Motherwell versus Celtic; Celtic manager Martin ONeill
Martin O’Neill is standing by Kasper Hogh and backing the striker to score 20 goals.
More than two months into his Celtic career the striker has scored just three goals, all of them coming in the first half away to Kilmarnock.
Hogh missed pre-season training at Celtic but arrived with a record of having scored seven goals in 12 league appearances for Bodo Glimt.
Hogh came to the fore at the turn of the year as he starred in Bodo’s eye-catching run in the Champions League which included a double against Manchester City.
That form has been elusive at Celtic but O’Neill’s confidence in his record Celtic signing remains absolute.
@ScotlandSky On one hand he says he needs to fit Duran in through the middle then says Hogh will score 20 goals.
Unless you play two up front, I don’t think both can happen auld yin
— Martin McDade (@MartinMcDade85) October 17, 2026
At the end of the season, I expect Kasper Hogh to score 20 goals.
He has lost a bit of confidence; we will get that back during the course of time
We have game after game after game between now and January, but he will score goals for us; there is no question about it, and it is just a matter of tinkering around, but that’s the nature of the business.
Confidence now appears to be the biggest issue for Hogh.
At Motherwell last Saturday he seemed anxious to lay the ball off to team-mates rather than take on an effort at goal.
Away to Benfica he got into a good position to pull a goal back at 2-0 down but sent his close range shot against the post.
O’NEILL WORKS ON FINDING SCORING FORMATION
Against that Camilo Duran seems wasted out on the right wing.
At half time against Benfica Duran took over as centre forward at half time and suddenly there was some purpose and shape to the way Celtic played. Duran scored Celtic’s goal, stating a strong claim to start against Hearts in that position.
Since the two strikers were signed in the summer Celtic fans have been looking to see how they perform as a partnership.
O’Neill has hinted towards that but in almost every match has played with one striker and two wingers.
With Jota and Yang Hyun-jun coming back into contention it seems less likely that O’Neill will be able to introduce a two man strike force.
With so many questions about Celtic’s formation and style the return of Hogh’s scoring touch would go a long way towards answering some of those issues.
