Kyogo is scoring roughly half as many goals as in previous seasons and Rodgers says it’s down to the player and not his management.
What’s actually happening with Kyogo?
It was one of the questions posed of Brendan Rodgers on Tuesday and the Celtic boss, as has become the standard with his recent no-punches-pulled approach to press conferences, wasn’t shy in offering up an honest answer. He bullishly told critics that the striker’s relatively dramatic drop-off wasn’t his fault, pinning it on the striker himself for not playing to his strengths.
“Tell me what Kyogo’s strengths are…it’s running in behind,” he said when asked about his dip in goalscoring; Kyogo’s scored eight goals in 23 games this season compared to 54 in his previous 83. “He’s not really a link player, although he can set the game up.
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“His efficiency is running in behind and being bright in the box. If there’s no space to run in behind. You saw it with Erling Haaland earlier in the season. When there’s no space you get limited touches when you’re that type of striker. That’s a part of his learning – he’s a young player who lives for the goals.”
It was a more nuanced, and perhaps less warranted approach to the one he took with Mikey Johnston, who was bluntly told it’s make or break time for his Celtic career. But alongside confirmation that the 28-year-old would start against Feyenoord on Wednesday evening, Rodgers’ up-front assessment could just as easily be taken as a challenge to Kyogo to improve his output.
Eight in 23 is not a goal return to be snuffed at. It’s better than a goal every three games, a goal per game ratio of 0.34 which most strikers would die for. But under Postecoglou, Kyogo averaged a goal ever 0.61 games. Under Postecoglou last season, Kyogo hit 34 on his way to picking up the PFA and FWA Scotland Player of the Year awards…if he keeps scoring at his current rate, he’d finish the season on 17.
Put another way, Kyogo has scored a goal for every 201.3 minutes on the pitch this season. That’s more than double last term (94.3), and his total average under Postecoglou (101.1).
The stats also back up Rodgers’ claim that he has taken on more creative responsibility. Three assists this season might not scream creator in chief, but he’s setting up goals at a markedly higher rate than he has in either of the last two seasons.
Three in 23 comes in at an assist for every 537 minutes; he managed eight in the previous two seasons, one for every 670 minutes on the pitch. So what does Rodgers want from his talisman?
More selfishness in front of goal, it would seem, and a return to the level of prolific goalscoring that saw him compared to Henrik Larsson under his last manager, at the expense of an uptick in creativity. Easier said than done, granted, but only time will tell if the Hoops’ goalscoring talisman will rise to the challenge placed in front of him for the public to plainly see.
