Celtic's delicious dilemma: What is the Kyogo Furuhashi and Giorgos Giakoumakis striker solution?

The equation for Celtic seemed obvious, if not straightforward, when Kyogo Furuhashi was lost to a long-term injury in the closing week of last year.

Giorgos Giakoumakis and Kyogo Furuhashi are two striking options for Ange Postecoglou - but can the Celtic boss find a formation to suit both goal-scorers?

The mission for Ange Postecoglou amounted to deploying whatever means available to offset the absence of the club’s pre-eminent performer and hang on to Rangers’ coat-tails in the title race until the time, with his hamstring issues resolved, the Japanese forward could be dropped back into the central striker role in which he had lit up Scottish football across his first six months.

Furuhashi is approaching that point of being available for his club’s first game back following the international break – a trip across the city to Ibrox a week on Sunday. Yet, the squad to which Celtic’s 16-goal top scorer will return, and the position they have manoeuvred themselves, is not as anticipated. All of which raises intriguing questions about how best to accommodate him.

When Furuhashi pulled up against St Johnstone on Boxing Day, Postecoglou’s side were six points adrift of Rangers and regarded to be entirely dependent on his energy and eviscerating runs. Flipping that into a three-point advantage by adapting to the wholly different Giorgos Giakoumakis as their free-scoring focal point with nine in seven outings, has created an obvious poser: could Furuhashi and the Greek goal-sniffer somehow be permed into a partnership?

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglu brought Kyogo Furuhashi in from Vissel Kobe in the summer. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

It remains a fact that the £4.6m summer buy from Vissel Kobe is the club’s most precious, influential asset. To employ current footballing techobabble, Furuhashi is the trigger for Celtic’s press. He elevates, and invigorates, Postecoglou’s team. For his part, Giakoumakis might be more lethal in the six-yard box, where his aggression, anticipation and octopus-style use of his lanky legs allows him to apply clinical contacts. Reflected by 11 of his 12 goals –all but one since Furuhashi has been sidelined – have been one-touch finishes. He is not the archetypal striker his imposing physique and bustle suggests.

With such contrasting endowments, a two-pronged frontline fusion of Furuhashi and Giakoumakis might appear to have the juiciest potential. However, Postecoglou does not set up his teams in such fashion because the ball retention demanded by the 56-year-old requires three players in the centre of the pitch, flanked by two wide. This is not an article of faith for Postecoglou. When he took over the Australia national team in 2014 he set-out his team in a 4-2-3-1 shape. For their Asia Cup success the following year, he operated with a 4-3-3 - the shape which led Yokahama F.Marinos to the J-League in 2019. Before then, for qualification for the 2018 World Cup, he switched to 3-4-2-1. Note, he has never deployed a front two as he refined his coaching strategies.

Furuhashi could play wide, of course, and did occasionally early on as the Celtic manager accommodated him with the now-departed Odsonne Edouard. The Japanese attacker was blunted wide on the left, and never more so than by fill-in right-back Leon Balogun on their last visit to Rangers. Postecoglou admitted afterwards he had called it wrong. It suggests that when Furuhashi is ready to start - unlikely for the Ibrox assignment but eminently possible for the Scottish Cup semi-final a fortnight later - it will largely be an either/or scenario, but it is a delicious dilemma for Postecoglou to face.

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