Celtic goal machine Kyogo knows it will be impossible to nudge the Lisbon Lions out of the picture. But it would still be nice to be in a frame alongside the Parkhead legends.
Ange Postecoglou’s champions spilled a couple of points against St Mirren at the weekend but the 2-2 draw fired the class of 2023 to 107 league goals for the season. Kyogo and Callum McGregor took the current side’s tally beyond the 106 managed by Brendan Rodgers’ Invincibles in 2016/17 – and made it the biggest hail since Jock Stein’s heroes hit 111 in their record breaking clean sweep campaign in 1967.
Kyogo has seen the pictures on the Parkhead walls and heard the stories about the icons of the sixties. And he’d love to be able to at least match their magical total from 55 years ago. The Japanese sensation said: “We need four more goals to match that record. Can I score four more? I don’t know if I can do it! But as a team, I believe it is definitely achievable in the remaining two games.
“I know there is a lot of history at this clubs and a lot of great achievements, from great teams like the Lisbon Lions. Teams like that one are the reason the club is where it is today, and it’s the reason we are all here today.”
Kyogo landed in Glasgow from the other side of the world but he knows all about Celtic’s storied past and the part Stein’s men played in building it. The 28-year-old is well under way to securing his own hero status in Glasgow’s East End with 51 goals in just two seasons, including major moments including doubles in consecutive League Cup Finals.
There’s a fair chance Kyogo will see his face in the corridors of Celtic Park at some point but he reckons he’s got a way to go. He said: “You see the pictures on the walls around the stadium and you hear a lot about the great history.
“I will be glad if one day my picture is on the walls as well, but there are many things I need to do before then. That’s my focus.
“It would be nice to get to the record, but if we want to enjoy such a moment we need to prepare well in training and produce performances in the matches.”
Kyogo took this tally to 31 for the season with a stunning strike after a slick move to make it 1-1 on Saturday after St Mirren had taken a shock lead. It was a trademark run from off the shoulder and superb finish as he cracked the ball into the top corner after spinning in behind to race on to Reo Hatate’s pass following a neat ball from Tomoki Iwata.
Kyogo was thrilled to add another to his account but he admitted it’s victories he wants rather than personal glory. He said: “It was nice to score another goal but I always aim to score goals to win the game.
“There is always the target to score as many goals as I can and hopefully I can add to my total in the final matches of the season.
“The most important thing is to win the matches though.”
Kyogo’s gaffer would go along with that assessment. Postecoglou didn’t seem too chuffed at his side’s lack of intensity against Saints. There’s been an understandable drop off since clinching the title two weeks ago, with the Buddies draw on the back of defeat at Ibrox.
Celtic have the Scottish Cup Final to prepare for, but the manager has warned to forget about it and focus on rediscovering the red hot form that secured them the title in the final two games of the campaign. Postecoglou said: “If they’re thinking about the cup final now, that’s a problem. Because when you start thinking too far ahead, you miss what’s happening now.
“We can’t have players thinking about performing on that day. Perform today, perform next week and then focus on the final.
“That’s vital or what happened on Saturday will happen again. It’ll be a struggle again.
“I understand that they’re human beings and we’ve won the title again, which is what the ambition was. But there are still games to be played.
“The football we’ve played this year. It’s been pretty compelling, at a very high level for a very long time.
“But you can’t expect to go off a certain part of it and expect it to roll on just because we’ve reached this point.
“It’s human nature and I understand it but my job is to remind the lads that, if you keep doing that, the struggle continues.
“They know how to change it, by committing to all sides of our game. If we do that, we’ll play the football we want to.”
Postecoglou had a look at midfielder Iwata in a centre back role and while he was comfortable on the ball, he was involved in a mix up for the opener and had a tough day up against Saints target man Curtis Main.
Not many got pass marks for their hard to please boss though and it’s clear he’s unhappy with the last two performances.
Postecoglou said: “He (Iwata) was ok. When you look at it, it is not about individuals, it is about the collective. We have been really good at committing to a game plan, and a game structure and a discipline and we’ve gone off that.
“When that happens it doesn’t allow anybody to stand out and it doesn’t mean anyone gets isolated either, it is a collective thing.
“I just don’t think we hit the levels we need to in order to play our football. We just haven’t done that the last couple of games.”
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