Kyogo Furuhashi

Teams like Dortmund he simply can’t start up there on his own. Kyogo comes alive when we have the quality on the ball to work him into positions of danger. When there’s no chance of us doing that, he’s a man short. There’s no outball up there. Maeda was the closest thing to that we had last night

 

I'd actually start Maeda ahead of both Kyogo and Idah in games like that. He did that job to good effect for Japan at the World Cup.

 

Look at how good Guirassy was at holding up the ball for the 2 rapid wingers and Brandt last night. They passed through us but they hit him when they needed to and he was excellent.

 

Agree, if we have to play Maeda away in tougher UCL games, central striker is the right place.
He closes down better than Kyogo and is far away from the liability on the ball he can be out wide or defensively.
But who'd continually bail Taylor out?

 

And he rarely played up against the two CB’s for that either, he dropped deeper or wider, with Adeyemi or Brandt moving into the CF position with us dragged out of place following them. Even Pep has evolved his style from the barely a striker false 9 sort of style to having Halaand there, and an option to target and play off him at times. Footballs a cycle of evolving styles, the Tika Taka purely midfield dominance style has moved on now, that has been Rodgers style with a bigger focus on attacking. Not just at ourselves, with Liverpool before us. I thought he’d learned now, because by * at times Leicester under him had that stingy battling quality as well as quality and an explosive counter to them.

But he’s slipped into old habits again.

 

Kyogo got no service at all last nite . Midfield couldn't buy a pass and no one could hold the ball for more than 10 feckin seconds

 

That there is one of the issues having him up top himself against a quality team away in Europe, if we can’t work the ball up the pitch behind him to make use of his movement and the midfield can’t hold onto it amongst themselves then there’s no option to skip the midfield, have him as the focal point for him to hold it up there and bring the midfield into play. Kyogo needs service, we need to bring him into play. And it’s not down to lack of effort or desire on Kyogo’s part, * there was a point he was at LB defending like * before he got subbed. He was anonymous but blameless for me, * he made some right good runs that even isolated if the ball came in behind or had the right weight on it when we actually spotted it and tried that could have worked. Problem is that without us having the grip of the game to be able to play in the midfield and work the ball up to take advantage of the clever runs, then we’re a man short up there.

And that’s been a big issue in these games for all his time here. If we manage to he can take advantage, look at his goal against Atletico last year. We had the grip in midfield and O’Riley the quality to make the most of his movement, but when they got a grip in midfield suddenly there’s nothing up top. Another player who was somehow that isolated when our midfield was both miles away from defence and attack. Only chance we had to get up and close the gap up the pitch was when we got Maeda into a position to take on the full back.

 

Think there was a few times he started to make the runs, but the ball never came to him.
Saw it plenty, as you describe as well, against St Johnston, that check he makes waiting for the lobbed ball over the top to run off the defensive line. The midfield just didn't want to make that ball. Often they didn't have time, but there was a few I clocked where it was more the midfielders just didn't realise/have confidence to do it.

I know you didn't say Idah should have started, but I'm not sure what else, as a squad, we could have done. I don't think Idah would have made really any difference at all.


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I thought Wednesday would've suited him down to the ground I expected us to sit deep and counter with the pace and movement of our front 3 I thought we could cause them some problems.

Instead we came out and pitched our back 4 on the halfway line against a rapid Dortmund attack, had our midfield 3 miles away from each other and a LB going needlessly wandering which all combined to mean we could barely string 2 passes together nullifying Kyogo

 

Made a difference, think his movement contributed to a goal aswell.

 

Sorry wee man I ever thought dropping you for todays game was a good idea

 

I can see the understanding in bringing him on against a tiring team, but it would be better for the nerves if he won us the game then was subbed off.

 

So unique in the world he's been living in.
A very special person + a great footballer, too

 

Just rewatching the game. Engels put him through on goal in the 57th minute and he tried to take it on to his left. Should have been burying it with his stronger foot as soon as he got the ball. Frustrating as that would have restored our two goal lead.

 

Think like a lot of games the 3 goals would have killed it as well.

 

Didn't he have 2 defenders between him and the goal? Think he was just trying to make space to get the shot off.