Celtic got their Scottish Premiership title defence off to the perfect start by comfortably seeing off Kilmarnock on Flag Day at the weekend.

Brendan Rodgers’ side picked up where they left off last season as they produced a slick performance in their league campaign opener. First-half goals from Reo Hatate and Liam Scales gave Celtic a commanding lead at the interval before strikes from Nicolas Kuhn and Anthony Ralston in the second period made the result certain.

Although not on the scoresheet himself, Japanese striker Kyogo was amongst the many in green and white who put in an imperious individual display as Rodgers’ charges started as they meant to go on this season. Kyogo, who scored six in five over pre-season, looked near his best at the weekend, balancing his natural threat in behind and typically clever movement with some very impressive link-up play that helped Celtic pick apart the Ayrshire side.

Here, with a particular focus that link-up play, we take a closer look at some of his key moments from Sunday’s game…

Early touches

Currently, the only recognised centre-forward at the club following the expiry of Adam Idah’s loan and Oh Hyeon-gyu’s recent move to Genk, Kyogo’s first touches in the match saw the striker dropping to help deep build-up play, exchanging passes with centre-back Liam Scales in the opening minutes.

Dragging Killie centre-back Lewis Mayo with him, the Japanese striker quickly popped the ball, first time, back to Scales as Celtic patiently built play up in the opening exchanges.

Kyogo was involved much higher soon after though as Celtic started to up the tempo. Celtic played at an impressive pace throughout the match but they were particularly sharp in the final third with plenty of quick, riskier first-time passes in and around the box.

The former Vissel Kobe forward was heavily involved in this, such as the below example where he dropped off Killie’s other centre-back Stuart Findlay on the edge of the box. Keeping his body open to receive the pass from Callum McGregor, he played a nicely weighted first-time pass around and into the path of Reo Hatate. 

Link-up with O’Riley

Although Celtic were forced out wide in the previous example, Hatate opened the scoring soon after and Kyogo almost quickly made it two thanks to some more excellent link-up play.

Combining to great effect with Matt O’Riley, as they have done on numerous occasions over the last few years, Kyogo again dropped to play the ball first-time, this time into O’Riley to his left.

Doing well to stay on his feet despite contact from the Kilmarnock defender, Kyogo spun away to attack the space in behind that he had created for himself by dropping deeper.

He was then found with an unsurprisingly perfectly timed return pass from O’Riley before getting off a fierce drive with his left from just outside the box that stung the hands of Robby McCrorie in the visitors’ goal.

Assist for Kuhn

Kyogo continued to mix up his game to good effect in the second half, again dropping deep to facilitate build-up. It was his more direct approach when coming short to receive from the defence that led to Celtic’s third goal though.

Again, dropping into his own half, Kyogo swept a pinpoint pass down the line first-time to find winger Nicolas Kuhn.

Perfectly weighted, Kuhn did not have to break his stride as he latched onto Kyogo’s pass before the German winger, another of the impressive opening-day performers, drove infield to fire in a third of the day.

Late chances to score

Kyogo then had chances to finally get in on the act himself. One of which was again thanks to him and O’Riley’s excellent understanding as he got onto an inventive clipped ball from a free-kick by the Danish international.

Wiped out by McCrorie as he got to the ball, astonishingly without consequence, Kyogo took a sore one. A serious concern given, as mentioned, he is currently the club’s only recognised centre-forward.

Despite his heavy knock, there was still time for one final effort as he continued to look for his first league goal of the campaign. Again, found by O’Riley with a sweeping pass, following a bursting run from McGregor, Kyogo’s last attempt of the day forced McCrorie into a sharp stop down low to his left. Unfortunately for McCrorie, substitute Anthony Ralston was then on hand to slot home the rebound and round off the scoring for the champions.

StatsBomb data

StatsBomb data from Sunday’s match further highlights Kyogo’s impact, especially in regard to his link-up play.

His positive contribution in possession is particularly evident in his 1.86 xGChain, from 81 touches, which was the second-highest in the Celtic team behind Greg Taylor (1.96). xGChain is StatsBomb’s model that attributes the xG value of the final shot to all players involved in the entire possession, giving credit to the work of those not involved in the final shot/shot assist.

One game is about as small a sample as you can get but this is still noteworthy given it is well over twice the average xGChain value Kyogo posted last season (0.88 per 90), highlighting his increased involvement in the game on Sunday compared to most of last season.

In terms of other key metrics, Kyogo’s failure to get on the scoresheet himself was certainly not down to a lack of trying. He led the way when it came to shots on the day with nine (1.12 xG). He also provided two key passes worth a combined xG of 0.13.

Conclusion

Kyogo had his leanest season in front of goal last campaign and cut a frustrated figure at times in what was something of a transition year following Rodgers’ return to the club. Lack of quality service, particularly from the wide areas, was one factor but there were also question marks over how suited he was to play the more ‘complete’ centre-forward role that Rodgers asks of his number nine.

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Although never going to offer the more physical attributes of an ideal complete forward, Sunday showed Kyogo is more than capable of being effective in this aspect of his game. There were of course some signs of this last season but on Sunday, and over pre-season, it has clicked more coherently, all while retaining his main strengths such as his threat in behind and his razor-sharp movement.

Whether that is simply further adaption to what Rodgers is asking of him, the return of ‘different animal’ Reo Hatate, the continued (for now) presence of Matt O’Riley or his growing relationship with Nicolas Kuhn, Kyogo certainly looks primed for a season more aligned with his first two than his most recent one.