Hit the ground running: Adjective; seizing an opportunity; to begin at full speed. For example, "As soon as Kyogo Furuhashi was put in Celtic's starting line-up, he hit the ground running."
The tale tells us the phrase derives from troops being dropped into a combat zone but despite the convenient initial, Dundee at home is hardly D-Day for Celtic.
The club's urgency for reinforcements can't be understated though and the two new recruits starting at 100mph are the aforementioned Japanese forward and his right-hand man Liel Abada.
Abada's performances and two European goals have encouraged a Celtic support who's quite rightly been fairly morose about the club's options on either wing. That's for another article though, for this Tuesday morning the attention is on hat-trick hero Kyogo Furuhashi.
READ MORE: Tactical analysis of Celtic's 6-0 win against Dundee
If you'll indulge my pedantry, I can't go along with the "he should have had two or three more" narrative. I understand the point and the underlining of the seven clear-cut chances he had, but life's butterfly effect doesn't stop fluttering its wings during football matches. A game unfolds with the consequences of the players' actions. If Furuhashi scored the first chance that came his way, which was the shot following the lovely one-two with Tom Rogic, then the play develops differently and the opportunities leading to his first two goals don't materialise.
I prefer to look at it through the lens of having chances to complete his hat-trick earlier than he did, and not knowing what would have happened thereafter, rather than saying he should have had six or seven, because that's not how a football match works. The same goes for saying Celtic "could have scored 10", realistically they couldn't because each subsequent chance wouldn't have transpired had the preceding one been scored.
Right, precision out the way, Furuhashi. That's 145 minutes of football played in a Celtic shirt and four goals he's scored. His first start bore number one and his home debut produced three more. His output combined with his work rate and humility has made him an instant favourite among the support and as far as endearing yourself to a fan base goes, he genuinely couldn't have performed any better.
There are several facets of his performance drawing considerable praise. His pressing and movement to get into goalscoring positions are probably the most notable ones while his finishing on the day was roughly level par with an xG shot average of 0.47 just about reflective of his three goals from seven shots. His first, the lovely cushioned finish from Abada's cross, was aesthetically ravishing but the most impressive part of the goal from a striker's point of view was the desire and intelligence shown by Furuhashi to get to the front post. As soon as David Turnbull's ball checked on Abada's flight path, the Japanese international shifted gear and darted towards the Israeli's impending cut-back. Of course, Furuhashi got there before Dundee's new centre-half Ryan Sweeney and from that point on the Englishman will have wanted the final whistle to arrive.
The movement for the second was even more impressive. It would have been a shame for Celtic if Ryan Christie's hard work on the left side had been wasted and Furuhashi's deception made sure it wasn't. All it took was a slight dip of his left shoulder and Sweeney was rendered useless again, fooled into transferring his weight onto his front foot and unable to track the striker's run. Christie's precision pass left him with an xG of 0.75, which seems relatively generous given he was almost on the goal-line, and while the Scot is getting the majority of the acclaim for his part in proceedings, Furuhashi didn't teleport to the right place at the right time. His intelligence and instinct in the final third gave him the easy task of tapping the ball home.
Furuhashi's third shows the pace at which the cogs spin in his head. Dundee were a beaten team by this stage and seemed fairly nonplussed as Stephen Welsh drove into their half. A square ball to Christie shouldn't have immediately increased the threat level but the number 8 was one step ahead of everyone else and Christie quickly started surfing the same wave. Dundee right-back Christie Elliot and centre-back Lee Ashcroft couldn't take their eyes off the ball and it proved a fatal mistake because before Christie had even received the ball from Welsh, Furuhashi was anticipating the next one and was on his way. An easier pass in-between two aforementioned Dee defenders was available but Christie flexed his muscles and, while looking in the other direction, played the most perfectly weighted reverse ball into Furuhashi, who was in the position to latch on to it because of his speed of thought. The finish never felt in doubt.
His defensive work rate was another aspect of his performance that left fans raving. He's a different type of striker, but it's fair to assess Odsonne Edouard's performances so far this season as quite indifferent. Furuhashi played for 70 minutes against Dundee, a game in which Celtic had 75 per cent of the ball, which translates to 52 minutes of the time Furuhashi was on the park. Let's just sum it up as saying they had the ball a lot and in turn, Dundee didn't really have it under their control at all. In the limited amount of time they did have it, Furuhashi pressed them to win it back on 15 occasions, almost once a minute, and nine times in Dundee's own third. We recognised this in our initial assessment of the former Vissel Kobe man after his abrupt transfer to Parkhead: Furuhashi will run, and run, and run.
Some of the world's best strikers and goalscorers perform with an arrogance that makes appreciating or enjoying them feel more difficult than it should be. Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, when he's not assuming the character of a make-believe lion at 39-years-old, are two that probably align with that, whereas others like Sergio Aguero are easier to fall for, partly because of their humility. If Furuhashi's on-field display somehow wasn't enough to warm the heart of even the most cynical Celtic supporter, then his gratitude at being named man of the match and the wholesome way he tapped his new team-mates' shoulders for a high five during the full-time lap of appreciation must have been. Sitting in the main stand, Kyogo's polite bow and bashful smile to the 25,000 inside Celtic Park were as pure as it gets.
Looks like someone was listening to the prayers of @Kyogo_Furuhashi
— The Fast Lovin' Sin-Soaked Heathen (@fast_sin) August 8, 2021
His reaction at the end of the game is priceless. He looks absolutely ecstatic, as do his team-mates - and he's determined not to let go of the ball.
Full video on my YT channel.
古橋 亨梧 #kyogo #celticfc pic.twitter.com/Aykfsb3qpp
Celtic needed a positive vibe after the opening day defeat to Hearts and have now seen 10 goals in two games bring wins heavily influenced by the performances of the new man from Japan.
Maybe the sun is rising slightly quicker than anticipated on Celtic's new dawn.
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