Last Night’s Front Line Change Has Brought Oh Into The Light … And It Will Help Kyogo Too.

A few weeks ago, Oh got his first goals of the season and that was great for him, because you could see his confidence start to soar. Since then, he’s looked he’s got something to offer us. We’ve seen the player a lot of us thought we glimpsed towards the end of last season.

He is a different sort of player to Kyogo, and we need his type in the arsenal.

Yesterday, before the game, I wrote about Kyogo and the need to adapt the style to something more suited to his type of play. It’s a mistake to think that good players can play in any system.

Sometimes you need to tailor the system to suit a player, or you are sticking a square peg in a round hole. We’ve made some inexplicable signings over the years, and I’ve heard Celtic coaches admit it in a way that questions the wisdom of those who make the decisions.

Patryk Klimala is an excellent case in point. We signed him and then didn’t play him except in a handful of games. John Kennedy admitted later on that he was a counter attacking footballer who fit best in that system … a system that Celtic did not play.

So, you have to wonder which genius at our club thought that was a good signing in the first place. It sure as Hell wasn’t the manager who he was brought in to play under.

It was baffling then and now, and is a clear-cut example of what we saw in the summer; players being brought in who the manager does not need and does not want and possibly even cannot find a use for. The same thing was evident with the signing of Maryan Shved.

Neither Kyogo nor Oh fit the category of a player who wasn’t signed to play in the system. In fact, both were signed by a manager who had very specific roles in mind for them, and Kyogo in particular who he knew well and understood what he’d offer us.

Still, Kyogo looks a little bit like a fish out of water at times under Rodgers.

I think the system will be tweaked just enough to accommodate him, and in the meantime, we need to know we can perform without relying too much on him. That’s another thing; the last thing we want as a club is to develop an over-reliance on one specific player. We have been successful these past few years precisely because we didn’t do that.

I didn’t think the manager would drop Kyogo last night.

I am glad that he did. Kyogo needs to be taken out of the firing line for the moment, and Oh has grabbed his chance. I suspect that Kyogo will be back in the team at Kilmarnock, although I wonder if McInnes’ rough and tumble approach is maybe more suited to Oh’s style of play.

That’s Rodgers’ call, of course, and I’m sure he’ll think long and hard about it. It’s the only domestic ground we’ve lost on, it’s our only domestic defeat and if we’re not learned from it I’ll be very surprised indeed. It’s good that we’re heading there after a good result and a good performance, but its just as important to see the plan coming more into focus.

He definitely wants to play McGregor further forward.

He really rates Iwata.

Now that Oh has started to look the part, I think you might see him flirt with different styles to accommodate he and Kyogo both; I thought they really scared the Hell out of St Johnstone at the weekend and that’s why I wondered if he might go with them both last night.

But Kyogo hasn’t been on his game these past few weeks, and whilst I don’t think Rodgers took him out of the side to be punitive, it’s a reminder to everyone that there are no sacred cows in this team, and no favouritism will be shown. It takes some of the pressure off people to know that they are not going to carry the weight of the whole team, and that might be just what Kyogo needed.

When the manager has a clearer idea how to get the best out of him we’ll really see a show. At the minute we’re spreading the goals throughout the side, and it’s pleasing to see how well that’s working for us. But the emergence of Oh as a real threat feels significant.

It feels like a turning point. We might just have two top class finishers after all.