Ange Postecoglou has defended Kyogo Furuhashi after labelling criticism against the Celtic fans' favourite as 'harsh'.
The Hoops star has seven goals in eight league outings to date ahead of today's clash against Hibs at Parkhead but he's struggled in the Champions League and yet to open his account. The Scottish champions have only picked up one point in the section and scored two goals in the process - with the Aussie boss pointing out goals are harder to come by at the elite level and that the Japan star hasn't been 'any less threatening'.
Celtic have created numerous big chances in their four Champions League games against Real Madrid, Shakhtar Donetsk and RB Leipzig twice but have failed to convert with the boss calling for his side to be more clinical in front of goal. They missed three big chances on matchday one against Real with the score level while they couldn't find the crucial second against Shakhtar in Poland, despite dominating for large spells.
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But Postecoglou has defended Furuhashi as he cited his recent shoulder issue that has 'disrupted' the striker in the past few weeks.
He said: “I don’t think people can be too harsh on him. Last week he set up Jota for a fantastic goal that he created. Champions League goals are hard to come by but I don’t think he has been any less threatening.
“He is still getting into good positions and he has been unlucky on a couple of occasions and I still think he really causes teams problems.
“Domestically we have had to juggle him a bit. People forget he was in great form and then hurt his shoulder which kept him out for a few weeks so he was a little bit disrupted. He is still a player who does very well for us.”
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