It was in early March when Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers had cause to take club attacker Kyogo Furuhashi aside and administer what's known in football parlance as a 'pep-talk'.

Republic of Ireland striker Adam Idah - who arrived on loan from Norwich City in January - had bagged a crucial double in a 3-1 Scottish Premiership win over Motherwell at Fir Park in a game which saw Kyogo hooked at half-time. Idah was then on target again in a 7-1 midweek win over Dundee as he took his goals tally to five and it was also a fixture which saw Celtic's top goalscorer benched.

Rodgers then had these words to say about the Japanese striker: "In my first spell here, Leigh Griffiths had scored 40 goals the previous season. People couldn’t envisage him not being in Celtic’s starting 11. But for me, it’s always about the team, never one player. This is a sign that Kyogo has to step up as well.

“He has such an important role here. He was great for two years but I wasn’t here then. I can only judge on what I’m seeing now, and if people aren’t performing Celtic has to be a club where there’s someone to step in. The biggest clubs must have competition. If you don’t have it, you suffer. But Kyogo is still a really important player for us.”

It was a warning shot over the bow that the Northern Irishman could not guarantee first-team football to any Celtic player, even if you happened to be named Kyogo. Rodgers' motivational speech clearly worked. Rather than sulking Kyogo came out swinging or scoring it would be more apt to say. The talisman leapt off the bench to score a fine goal against Livingston in the 4-2 Scottish Cup quarter-final victory at Parkhead.

He repeated the trick with an excellent textbook header and vintage Kyogo display in the 3-1 Scottish Premiership win over St Johnstone which took Celtic back to the top of the table. The 29-year-old has already dislodged as the starting centre-forward and has started in attack in the last two matches for the men in green and white.

READ MORE: Celtic's baby-faced assassin Kyogo Furuhashi is back on form

Kyogo will lead the line again as Celtic head to Ibrox for the third Glasgow Derby instalment of the season. As yours truly wrote in an article on this site the baby-faced assassin was back with a vengeance. The striker has picked the best time of the season to rediscover his form and goalscoring mojo. In the meantime, Celtic have started to play to Kyogo's strengths again.

What are Kyogo's strengths? As Rodgers stated in December: "His strength is his penetration. That’s his game, running in behind and timing his runs. His strength is playing off the last line, timing his movements and being instinctive in the opposition box. He’s a threat instinctively in the box where he can get goals."

Kyogo always plays on the shoulder of the last defender, he makes trademark near-post runs constantly and he produces instinctive reactions in the box. That's him to a tee. Most Celtic supporters will recognise those traits having paid attention and watched him at close quarters for the best part of three seasons.

The reason the fans will recognise them is because it is largely how Kyogo has buried every one of his seven goals that he has notched against Rangers in 11 outings against them during his Celtic career to date. Kyogo has long since announced himself as a force to be reckoned with in one of world football’s most revered fixtures and fiercest rivalries.

Here's an interesting statistic and piece of trivia about Kyogo's goals against Rangers. He has managed to score at every end against Celtic's city rivals at Parkhead, Ibrox and Hampden. He achieved all of that in a calendar year. That takes some doing. Bravo Kyogo!

READ MORE: Celtic's Kyogo Furuhashi's goals against Rangers analysed

However, here comes the 'but' clause.

There aren't many holes to pick in Kyogo's make-up at all but scoring away from home this season has been his Achilles heel. Perception is everything and many of the Celtic supporters will be surprised to learn that their talisman has notched just four goals away from home all season.

Four? Ironically, Kyogo has not scored in the league on his travels since Celtic destroyed Hearts 4-1 at Tynecastle back on October 22. That's just under six months without an away goal in the league. For a striker of Kyogo's calibre and exceptionally high standards, it is a disappointing return thus far.

Thankfully Kyogo doesn't appear to let anything get to him as he stated when he took to Instagram recently and declared: "I'm not afraid of failure, I will continue to challenge and aim for the top."

Now before the Celtic supporters start jumping up and down, he did manage a strike in the 2-0 Scottish Cup last 16 win over St Mirren in Paisley in February. The striker's goal return between now and May is going to be vital for Celtic in their quest for a third successive title success. Kyogo has netted 15 goals in all competitions for Celtic this season. He is on 69 career goals for Celtic after bagging 20 in his first season with the club and another 34 in last season's superb treble-winning campaign. The bigger point to be made here is that by the law of averages, Kyogo is probably due to bag an away goal sooner rather than later.

What are the odds of Kyogo scoring his fifth away goal of the season at Ibrox? This is why Philippe Clement and Rangers should be afraid, very afraid. After all, it was Kyogo who was the difference between the sides back in September at Ibrox when he crashed home a long-range beauty in a 1-0 win for Celtic when no away fans were in attendance. The circumstances will be exactly the same on Sunday and you get the feeling that Kyogo is about to come alive once more.

Kyogo is the best plunderer of goals against Rangers that Celtic have had since Henrik 'The King of Kings' Larsson. Like Larsson before him, the Glasgow Derby is the game that seems to flick Kyogo's switch the most. He is certainly the most intelligent penalty box striker the club has had in their ranks since the Super Swede was in his pomp and ceremony. For the record, Larsson managed 15 goals against Rangers in the green and white of Celtic. If Kyogo bulges the net in Govan this weekend he will be more than halfway to matching Larsson's incredible strike rate against Rangers in less than half the time. Now that is seriously impressive.

The No. 8 is after Glasgow Derby goal number eight. No pep-talk is required.