Celtic may not need to worry about being without £4.6m player in January

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All the chat over the past two weeks is how Celtic will need to jump into the transfer market to sign a striker because of the Asian Cup.

Brendan Rodgers could face three games after the New Year without Kyogo Furuhashi, Daizen Maeda and Hyoengyu Oh if all three are selected by their respective countries.

However, I believe that Celtic may not need to worry about being without Kyogo as his recent form for the club may mean Hajime Moriyasu won’t select him for the Japan squad anyway.

When the Celtic striker was at the peak of his powers last season, Moriyasu stubbornly refused to pick Kyogo citing the standard of the Scottish game as a reason for his omission.

Strangely, he continued to select Daizen Maeda which rendered his argument obsolete. Moriyasu then came under intense pressure from the Japanese media and they started to question his team selection as Kyogo charged towards being crowned the Scottish Premiership‘s top goalscorer.

Moriyasu eventually backed down in May of this year and Kyogo was in with the Japan manager stating [Gekisaka], “I called him up because he has been continuously contributing to the team’s victories with results and a strong presence.”

Now remember, the Japanese striker scored 34 goals last season. We are almost half way through this season and he has scored just six.

An early flurry of goals hinted that the £4.6m signing from Vissel Kobe could match or even beat his goal return last season, but before the Aberdeen game, Kyogo failed to score in three games prior to that.

His goal against Hearts also ended another three-game spell where his goals dried up and so did his effectiveness heading the Celtic attack.

His new role at Celtic under Rodgers is clearly affecting his ability to get into goalscoring opportunities and that is something the Hoops gaffer must look to address.

On top of that, Moriyasu has a number of strikers playing in bigger leagues on better goalscoring form than Kyogo.

Tekefesa Kubo is on 5 goals in La Liga with Real Sociedad, Kauro Mitoma is likely to be fit for Brighton soon and rookie, Mao Hosoya, who has scored 14 in the J League for Kashiwa Reysol seems to be an emerging talent in Japan who has also made the squad.

And let’s not forget that Takuma Asano is on five in the Bundesliga for Vfl Bochum. [All data from Fotmob]

Out of all that and the fact Moriyasu doesn’t rate Scottish football, Kyogo’s current form will give Moriyasu the perfect opportunity to not select Kyogo for the upcoming tournament in Asia.

In other news, 24-year-old’s Celtic career looks to be over after what happened in the Champions League last night