Kyogo Furuhashi's sensational Celtic scoring streak assessed

His two first-half strikes against Morton, which helped ease the Hoops into the fifth round of the Scottish Cup, also made it nine goals in eight games since the World Cup break for the electric Japanese forward.

Equalling his 2021-22 total in all competitions before the end of January, his cup double at the weekend followed a brace in last week’s 4-0 Scottish Premiership win over St Mirren which took his league goal tally this season to 17.

His campaign last season was of course disrupted by that hamstring injury that kept him out for three months at the start of 2022 but his 17 league goals so far this season, five more than he managed in 2021-22, have come in the same number of Scottish Premiership appearances.

This red-hot form in front of goal prompted plenty of praise from Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou post-match last midweek who also took issue with any suggestion his talisman had suffered a dip in form compared to last season.

READ MORE: Detailed Celtic player ratings as Celtic crush Morton in Scottish Cup

“As I keep saying, I’m struggling to find the flat period that everyone thinks he’s had at some point," Postecoglou said. "From the moment he arrived in Scotland, he’s been scoring goals.

"His two goals were great from a team aspect because it’s stuff we work on. But the quality of his finishing is outstanding.”

As is often the case with Postecoglou, who made Kyogo his statement signing last summer following his appointment as Celtic manager, he is not wrong.

Last season in the league the £4.6million signing from Vissel Kobe averaged 0.85 goals per 90. This season his 17 league strikes are currently working out at 1.12 per 90.

What is impressive this season though is that he has been able to increase his output from a similar volume of expected goals (xG) as last season.

In the league in 2021-22, he scored 12 goals from an xG total of 10.87, a differential of plus 1.13.

This season, in roughly the same number of minutes so far, he has outperformed his xG by 5.62, netting his 17 goals from a total xG of 11.38.

As can be seen in the above radar from StatsBomb, his xG per 90 is working out roughly the same, 0.77 per 90 last season compared to 0.75 per 90 this season.

The quality of each chance he is getting to is similar too. His xG per shot last season was 0.25 while this season he is down, but only slightly, to 0.22.

His shot maps are fairly consistent too, taking his shots in those high-quality areas between the posts, around the line of the six-yard box.

So why the increase in output? Is it just simply a hot streak? Most strikers will tend to go through periods of overperformance and underperformance on their xG.

Or are there other factors behind his current goal rate? Looking back at his comparison data can start to offer some clues to this.

Although, as just seen, most of his underlying attacking numbers have remained roughly similar, there are a few other metrics that have changed more noticeably compared to last season.

His xGBuildup value, a metric that attributes the xG value of the final shot to all players involved in the entire possession, has dropped somewhat, from 0.63 to 0.44, while his xG Assisted, the expected goal value of his assisted shots, has dropped from 0.16 to 0.05.

This indicates he has been involved less in the build-up and has not created quite as much for others.

In isolation, you could well look at that the drop off in these numbers as a negative. However, when considered alongside this increase in scoring rate, has this actually helped him become even more focused on maximising his chances?

Could being concentrated less on supporting the build-up and creating for others, be helping free Kyogo up to make the most of his own goalscoring opportunities?

Something similar may also be going on off the ball too.

His pressures exerted per 90 has dropped from 14.08 to 12.30, which is admittedly consistent with Celtic’s overall drop in pressures this season compared to last (100.05 pressures per 90 this season, 116.53 per 90 last).

However, could doing slightly less work off the ball also be helping contribute to the Japanese forward arriving at his chances in sharper condition?

If it has also played a part then it hasn't come at a cost in terms of his pressure regains. He’s actually improved his pressure regains slightly, winning possession back 2.31 times per 90 this season, compared to 1.91 per 90 last season.

A look at his counterpressures also paints a similar picture. A slight decrease in volume, 2.78 per 90 compared to 2.83 per 90 last season but an increase in regains, 0.26 counterpressure regains per 90 compared to 0.07 per 90 last season.

Not only more efficient in front of goal then, but also off the ball too.

As always, the data is only part of the story though. Staying injury-free, obviously, and being rotated more, are also likely to be more general reasons behind this added sharpness in front of goal.

With Celtic’s only other natural striker, Giorgos Giakoumakis injured for the early months of his hoops career last season, Kyogo ended up overloaded, something which ultimately resulted in the injury he picked up on Boxing Day in 2021 that kept him out for three months.

Both have stayed relatively injury-free this season, giving Postecoglou the option to manage their minutes. Had the burden fallen solely to Kyogo, as it did last season, he could well have played a lot more minutes. Giakoumakis has played 791 League minutes this season.

Things are set to change in the striker department this month with the Greek striker Giakoumakis seemingly poised for an exit amid plenty of links to one or perhaps even two players to come in to share the load up front.

It is hard to see anyone else who does come in dislodging Kyogo from his number-one forward status for the rest of the season at this point though.

Therefore, should he stay injury-free and keep up a similar run of form between now and the end of the season, the fan's favourite could well reach a tally that would put him in some pretty esteemed company.

The only two Celtic players to score 30 or more league goals in a single season this century are Leigh Griffiths (31 in 2015-16) and Henrik Larsson (2000-01 and 2003-04).

If Kyogo can keep up this ruthless streak in the reaming 16 league games, who is to say he can’t join them?