Celtic strikers struggling for form ahead of crucial European games

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The Celtic Star

·9 January 2025

Celtic strikers struggling for form ahead of crucial European games

Celtic grinded their way to another well earned three points last night against Jim Goodwin’s Dundee United, who for the majority of the match sat deep and tried to frustrate the home side…

Daizen Maeda of Celtic celebrates scoring his team’s first goal during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Dundee United at Celtic Park on January 08, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

It wasn’t scintillating football on show but it very rarely is at this time of the year, especially with the current weather and even more so this year as the players missed out on their usual winter break where they are used to soaking up a bit of sun and recharging the batteries in the likes of Dubai.

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Maeda and Hatate got the Celtic goals

The match ended 2-0 with a goal in either half, the first from Daizen Maeda and the second from international teammate Reo Hatate who had only recently joined the action from the substitutes bench.

Reo Hatate of Celtic celebrates scoring the second goal during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Dundee United at Celtic Park on January 08, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Something that stood out for me is that our goals have once again come from a winger and a midfielder. Now most teams would be overjoyed at their wingers and midfielders chipping in with goals and I’m certainly not complaining about them producing the goods in front of goal yet again but my worry is regarding why have the goals from our strikers suddenly dried up?

Celtic have scored 84 goals so far this season, only 18 from our strikers

This season already we have scored 84 goals across three competitions, the League, the League Cup and the Champions League. Our main striker Kyogo has scored a total of 10. That’s 8 in the League, 1 in the League Cup and 1 in the Champions League. Our other striker Adam Idah has scored a total of 8. That’s 5 in the League, 2 in the League Cup and 1 in the Champions League.

We won’t need to check our calculators then to work out then that out of our 84 goals so far this campaign a total of 18 has been scored by our two strikers. I find that statistic incredible. This means that less than a quarter of our goals have been scored by our strikers.

Adam Idah of Celtic and Dundee United’s Ross Graham during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Dundee United at Celtic Park, on 8th January 2025. Picture by Mark Runnacles

Firstly let me say that there are managers all over the world who would absolutely love to have to rely so little on their strikers with players all over the park picking up goals but that’s neither here nor there. I’m looking at these stats and wondering what’s went wrong with our front men this season.

Personally I think there’s a few different reasons why these numbers are so low, and I’m going to start with the most obvious one that neither of our strikers are in form. It’s been pretty obvious all season that both these players are miles off what they are capable of producing.

Kyogo has struggled at times this season

Kyogo Furuhashi of Celtic wins a header during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Dundee United at Celtic Park on January 08, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

If we start with Kyogo it’s quite clear to see that he has struggled at times this season. Yes he still does the things that made us love him in the first place. He is always floating around the danger area looking to find space behind the lines. He chases and harries constantly when Celtic are out of possession.

The only thing missing is burying the ball in the back of the net. He has missed some chances this season that you would have put your house on him scoring in previous seasons, especially in the days under Ange Postecoglou. You always backed him to score in the big games. Not so much this season where he is quite often anonymous on the big stage.

Moving on to Adam Idah

We then move on to Adam Idah. Brought back to Celtic after an outstanding contribution while on loan in the second half of the campaign last year. Most of us were delighted to have signed him permanently, even though some baulked at the price tag.

Adam Idah of Celtic blocks Hamza Igamane of Rangers during the Scottish Premiership match at Ibrox. Rangers v Celtic, Scottish Premiership, 02 January 2025. Photo O Rourke Shutterstock

Whether we thought we overpaid or not one thing was for certain. We knew we had a goalscorer on our hands. We also had a player with the type of mindset to thrive at Celtic. If it wasn’t for him scoring some vital goals at vital times last season there is a huge chance would wouldn’t have claimed the League title or the Scottish Cup.

This season however he’s looked a shadow of the player we had previously. Not only is he not scoring much but he’s not contributing a great lot either. Not through lack of trying may I add, more just that nothing he is doing seems to be coming off. Just like Kyogo it’s clear he’s struggling for confidence.

Contributing factors

There are a few other factors that could be contributing to the strikers low numbers, for example how the opposition is setting up and also the style of football our manager likes to play.

Brendan Rodgers and Adam Idah. Hearts v Celtic, Scottish Premiership, Tynecastle. 23 November 2024. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Celtic won the double last year in Brendan Rodgers first season back at the helm but I don’t think anyone would say we were at our best. It took the team longer than anticipated to get away from the style of play demanded by our previous manager and get to grips with the way Brendan Rodgers likes to play.

This season is a different story. We have been excellent from the word go and our opponents domestically have realised that and set up accordingly. Teams have sat in a lot deeper this season than last. Last year teams could sense a vulnerability in us and attacked us a lot more feeling we weren’t overly strong defensively. This led to more space for our strikers to work with.

Most teams are setting up with a low block

This season most teams are setting up with a low block meaning when our strikers do get the ball they are surrounded by the opposition. This has led ultimately to a lot of our goals being scored from outside the box which we have saw multiple times with Callum McGregor, and also with players dribbling it in from the wings like Nicolas Kühn and Daizen Maeda.

Nicolas Kühn celebrates scoring the third goal during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and St. Mirren at Celtic Park on January 05, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

The other factor is that the way Brendan Rodgers likes to play isn’t conducive to a striker bagging many goals. He plays a possession game, one that pokes and probes until it finds the best opportunity to score. Domestically we often spend most of the game playing the ball around the edge of the box without every really trying to draw the opposition out. It’s more death by a thousand cuts than loading a ball into the box and letting the stiker do all the work.

Both strikers not in the best of form

To be honest even with these factors I mentioned not helping out strikers cause, ultimately I feel like unfortunately both of our front men are going through a bad spell at exactly the same time, which is worrying with such important European games on the horizon.

Brendan Rodgers looks on prior to the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Dundee United at Celtic Park on January 08, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

With the transfer window currently open I think we would be unwise not to be looking at what’s available, perhaps even in a loan move. Either way it’s up to our manager to sort this problem out, and sort it out fast. The sooner he can get the confidence back into Kyogo and Idah the better. The Champions League isn’t the place to be turning up at with a misfiring strike force.

Conall McGinty

Kasper Schmeichel acknowledges the fans following the Scottishl Premiership match between Celtic and Dundee United at Celtic Park on January 08, 2025 . (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

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