THERE will be more than a few people who watched Kyogo Furuhashi at St Andrew’s against Nottingham Forest and pleaded for his movement to be rewarded.
Chris Davies was among them.
Blues’ boss has seen the intelligence of the forward first-hand – the truth is he would have been given the nod anyway from his former mentor Brendan Rodgers at Celtic Park.
And the royal blue faithful saw for themselves exactly why the pace frontman was signed against Nuno Espirito Santo’s men.
Darting runs, pulling away from central defenders and then timing his movement to perfection to beat any offside trap calls for a lot of skill.
And it also calls for the right pass to be played forward at the right time for the striker.
Last season – Davies himself coined the phrase ‘pounding the rock’ it was a difficult watch at times as the ball went from one side of the pitch to the other without much penetration.
However, faced with superior opposition, different tactics are being called for.
And one of them concerns Furuhashi.
It doesn’t matter how clever the runs, if the ball doesn’t turn up in space at roughly the same time, the talent is being wasted.
Chris Davies said: “Kyogo does make very, very good runs and a lot of them and yeah, there are times where he’s maybe not been quite seen or found.
“But I want him to continue to run and continue to play that energy. You can see he’s quick.
“He had one where he pressed a goalkeeper and you could see his change of pace.
“It is all still new for Kyogo – coming into you know, a new country, actually, and a new league and a new team, you know, but you can see quite clearly what qualities he does have, like you say, with a movement and the speed, and he’s obviously a very, very good finisher, although we haven’t created too many chances for him since he’s been playing in pre-season games.
“But yeah, he’s someone that will just add to us this season, no doubt about that.”
