‘Bright’ Furuhashi praised

CELTIC manager Brendan Rodgers hailed the movement of Kyogo Furuhashi after the striker hit his first double of the season in Saturday’s 3-0 victory over Hearts.

The cinch Premiership leaders appear to be peaking at the right time and the Japan international looked to be at his best as he twice drifted in behind the Hearts defence to net in the opening quarter following assists from Reo Hatate and Matt O’riley.

Rodgers said: “I thought he was much better in his movement. Really bright for his first goal.

“I thought we were really good set-piece-wise.

“The first goal comes from the second phase but we sustained the pressure and he anticipates the ball in and scores a really good header.

“Then his second goal, what a finish.

“Sublime pass but what a finish, dropping out of the sky.

“It is a difficult one, that, so to control it the way he did was really good.”

Furuhashi has now scored 18 times for Celtic this season, moving him just over half of the 35-goal haul he managed last term.

Celtic have not had the same consistency of selection or performance from their wide players but the 29-year-old has also sometimes appeared frustrated when his runs in behind have not been spotted.

Rodgers stressed the message to feed the forward quickly had remained consistent.

“It’s never not been,” he said.

Hearts head coach Steven Naismith said he was pleased with some of their forward play as he looks to build on a positive first season at the helm.

“You need to have some form of attack and I thought we had that, especially in the first half,” he said.

Kyogo Furuhashi.