Kyogo Furuhashi and the Art of Movement
Kyogo Furuhashi’s football career was typical of many of Japan’s professional contingent. His youth career was spent at two youth clubs before playing for his High School team. He then attended Chuo University in Tokyo, playing for their football team before graduating and being signed for second division side FC Gifu in 2017. He lit up the J2-League, scoring seventeen goals and providing sixteen assists in sixty-eight games, before being snapped up by one of the most well-known clubs in Japan in recent times (thanks to Andrés Iniesta) — Vissel Kobe.
Kyogo cemented his name in the history of the club early on, scoring the goal that confirmed their place in their first-ever Emporer Cup final — a trophy they’d go on to win and their first and only piece of major silverware to date. In total, he’d contribute directly to sixty-seven goals (49 goals, 18 assists) across one hundred and ten appearances. This is where his career path got less typical.
To know where Kyogo would be if Celtic hadn’t opted for Ange Postecoglou last summer is something we’ll never know — and is ultimately meaningless looking back on. Celtic struck gold with the appointment of the Australian manager, and it opened up a world of opportunity for the Nara-born forward.
Twenty goals and the first league title of his career later, Kyogo — affectionately known as one of the Japanese Bhoys — is a fan favourite in Glasgow (well for half of them, anyway) and one of the country's best players. In this piece, I’ll look at his first season in Scotland in detail, and analyse what makes him so effective.
Celtic’s Style of Play and Kyogo’s Gametime
Much has been made of Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic this season, and the tactics he’s utilised. If you want it broken down in full detail there is an excellent podcast episode of Jon Mackenzie’s constantly excellent A Pod About Tactics, in which he and Celtic aficionado Stephen Russell discuss it in full.
For the benefit of this piece, here is a much smaller and brief explanation. Celtic have utilised a 4–3–3 almost exclusively this season. They press aggressively out of possession, and look to win the ball back high up the pitch (more on Kyogo playing a role in this later); In possession, they are high tempo and high energy, the full-backs push high up the pitch and come inside while the wide players in attack stay wide, stretching the opposition defence.
Kyogo only managed to register 1,553 minutes in the SPFL and Europa League this season (39.2% of available minutes) due to a hamstring issue and missed twenty-five games in total. When he did play it was predominantly through the middle, as Celtic’s centre-forward (he has also played some minutes on the left wing).
The Art of Movement
If it wasn’t clear from the title, one of — if not the — best attributes of Kyogo’s game is his movement and ability to find space. Let’s take a look at his shot map for this season (shoutout to Naythan Din-Kariuki):
The age of Expected Goals has brought up a new thought in football — that finishing as a skill is overrated, and that movement of the positions you’re able to get in is much more valuable. In that sense, Kyogo Furuhashi is the perfect attacker. If we look at his shot map above, over half of his shots this season have come not just inside the box — but in the most dangerous areas of the penalty area. The Japanese strikers' ability to find space in the box is second to none in Scottish football.
This is from Kyogo’s debut against Dundee;
Christie has broken into space out wide while Kyogo (circled) has picked up space in between the two central defenders.
As one of the defenders moves across to deal with the ball, Kyogo has placed his weight on his left leg to almost indicate he’s going across the defender (which is a move a lot of attackers would do, as it gives a higher probability of making contact with the ball).
Instead, Kyogo shifts his weight and moves in behind the defender, who is visibly turned around by the movement of the attacker and who is now blind as to where he is. This results in an easy tap-in and gives Kyogo his second goal of the game.
Here’s another of Kyogo’s goals this season, this time the first in a 2–0 win against Ferencvaros in the Europa League;
Jota has the ball deep inside his half after Ferencvaros turn the ball over in attack. He’s afforded space to move into, and when he looks up what does he see — Kyogo again finding the space on the blindside of the defender. Again, this results in a goal as Kyogo’s movement and a quite unbelievable pass afford him time and space to slot the ball home.
The next example — and one of my favourite goals last season — comes in Celtic’s 6–0 title procession against Motherwell on the last day of the season;
As Ralston picks the ball up just inside the opposition half, Motherwell’s defence looks set in its structure and while Kyogo is scanning he doesn’t seem to be in a position to be an immediate threat.
As Ralston turns and looks up, we can see Kyogo is already on the move. Again, he’s utilising the space behind his closest defender, meaning the Motherwell player has no idea where Kyogo is going or where he is.
Ralston plays a quite unbelievable lofted pass, but Kyogo’s movement has allowed him to get into the space between the defender and goalkeeper and his first-time volley ends up in the goal.
There’s a very clear common theme here with his movement. His ability to get on the blindside of defenders and confuse them with his fast footwork and body feints causes havoc. It’s the reason he has put up the second-best Expected Goals per ninety in the league this season (behind his teammate Giakouamkis) at 0.94 (per Opta). His quick thinking and instinct allow for a variety of finishes, but if there’s one weak spot to his goalscoring it’s that he rarely uses his left foot — he’s scored just 8% of his goals with his weaker side.
Defending from the Front
As mentioned above, defending from the front and smart pressing is a key part of Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic. For the system to work, Celtic’s attackers need to be in sync with their pressing and cutting out passing lanes. This then allows them to turn the ball over high up the pitch and create numerical advantages in the attack.
Kyogo is a massive part of this. Firstly, he’s high energy and the sort of player people describe as a ‘Duracell Bunny’, in that he rarely looks like he’s running out of energy (think Dirk Kuyt). But what sets Kyogo apart is that he’s extremely intelligent and pressing and cutting off passing lanes. He knows how to shape his body to maximise effectiveness. A big part of Postecoglou’s methods being so effective in such a short space of time is down to Kyogo’s leading of the press and his intelligence in cutting out passing lanes. This has allowed Celtic’s midfield to push up and cause a suffocating effect against the opposition.
With Celtic back in the Champions League group stages for the first time since 2017, Kyogo’s ability to defend from the front will be key to how successful Celtic can be. Celtic are very much a ball-dominant team domestically, but in Europe and likely pot four, they’ll be seen as the weakest link — competing against sides with far bigger budgets. If Kyogo (and the rest of Celtic’s attacking unit) can get turnovers high up the pitch then it will allow them to create situations where they have a numerical advantage and opportunities that will be harder to come by than in league games.
What Next?
As mentioned, Celtic are back in the Champions League group stages for the first time since 2017. With a settled squad and defined philosophy under Ange, they will look to start another period of dominance domestically whilst aiming to at least drop into the Europa League knockouts. While the Champions League is important to the club, it’s also important for Kyogo. It will give him massive exposure, and at twenty-seven and looking to cement a place in Japan’s starting eleven for Qatar, performing on the biggest stage will almost definitely do that.
He’ll be key to Celtic’s success. With only 13.4 ‘90’s’ completed in the league last season, the Japanese attacker will want to avoid injuries (he doesn’t have a history of them, despite a severe one this season). His movement and efficiency in front of goal — 0.89 per ninety this season — will be essential if Celtic are to have success in Europe, a place they struggled this season.
This has been a short look at Kyogo’s game and what makes him so effective. Kyogo is one of the most exciting players in Scottish football, and it’s been a joy to watch him. Next season is a massive one for him, and with Champions League football and a World Cup on the horizon, his stature in the game could grow exponentially.
