This Is What Celtic Have Been Missing – Kasper Høgh Has Already Shown Why I Warned Against Writing Him Off.

Well, that didn’t take long.

Last week, following Kasper Høgh’s Celtic debut against Dundee, I wrote an article with a fairly straightforward message.

Writing off Kasper Høgh already? Good luck with that.

It wasn’t based on blind optimism. Nor was it the usual excitement that surrounds a shiny new signing arriving at Celtic Park.

I had watched his debut and, despite the fact he hadn’t scored, I liked an awful lot of what I saw.

There were chances he should have taken. Høgh himself admitted that with his shooting practise one liner to the press.

Yet concentrating solely on the misses ignored everything that had allowed those opportunities to materialise in the first place.

His movement was good. His positioning was intelligent. He was getting into areas where strikers score goals.

More importantly, nothing about his reaction afterwards suggested a player whose confidence had been remotely affected.

Fast forward six days and Høgh has walked off Rugby Park with the match ball after scoring a first-half hat-trick in Celtic’s 5-1 victory over Kilmarnock.

The Signs Were There Against Dundee.

Football has become ridiculously reactionary.

A striker can arrive for a club-record fee, play one competitive match, fail to score and suddenly people are asking questions.

Høgh had barely unpacked his bags.

Against Dundee, however, the interesting part for me wasn’t that he hadn’t scored. It was that he kept finding himself in positions where he could have.

That distinction matters.

I’d be far more concerned about an £11 million striker going through 90 minutes without getting near a chance than one arriving in Scotland, immediately finding opportunities and failing to convert them.

Finishing can fluctuate.

Movement generally tells you more.

That’s why the reaction from our rivals ban after his debut felt so brilliantly stupid.

Celtic haven’t spent a club-record £11 million on somebody without a body of work behind him either. Høgh arrived from Bodø/Glimt having scored 53 goals in 102 appearances according to Sky Sports. He had also demonstrated his ability in European competition and scored during Bodø/Glimt’s Champions League run last season.

We’re not talking about a speculative punt on an unknown striker.

There was a CV.

There was pedigree.

Most importantly, there were goals all over the shop.

One game against Dundee wasn’t going to make all of that disappear.

Then came Killie away.

If the Dundee performance showed us the movement, Rugby Park showed us what happens when you combine it with the finishing.

Three goals.

Thirty-five minutes.

Game effectively finished.

His first arrived almost immediately and Celtic never really looked back. By half-time, Høgh had his hat-trick and Celtic were 3-0 ahead before eventually running out 5-1 winners.

Look beyond the headline, though, because that’s where I think the really encouraging stuff is.

These weren’t three goals that suddenly appeared from nowhere.

Høgh was doing exactly what I’d liked about him against Dundee.

Getting into the box.

Reading where the delivery was going.

Finding space.

Arriving at the right moment.

Finishing first time when the opportunity demanded it.

That’s centre-forward play.

Some people almost dismiss those goals because they aren’t 30-yard screamers or because the striker hasn’t beaten four defenders before sticking it into the top corner.

I couldn’t care less.

Give me a striker who scores 25 tap-ins every season.

Celtic Have Missed These Goals.

This is the part that excites me most.

Celtic needed this.

Losing Kuhn’s goal contributions from the side and with Maeda not looking like he could get near his 30 plus goal haul from the year before that, took the sting out our teams tail.

Last season, there were too many occasions where the team could dominate possession without having that ruthless presence occupying the areas where matches are actually won.

You can have all the pretty combinations you want around the penalty area. Eventually somebody needs to put the ball in the net.

Høgh looks like somebody who lives for that responsibility.

Even his own description after joining Celtic told us what type of player we’d bought. He said he likes being in the box and scoring goals, while also emphasising his willingness to work for the team.

That’s exactly what I want to hear from Celtic’s number nine.

Don’t overcomplicate it.

Get into the box.

Anticipate where the ball is going.

Score goals.

At Rugby Park, that’s precisely what happened.

There is an art to being in the right place.

People sometimes talk about positioning as though it’s luck.

It isn’t.

Watch the best penalty-box strikers and you’ll repeatedly see them arriving in areas where defenders don’t want them.

There’s an instinct involved.

They read the body shape of the player delivering the ball. They anticipate where a rebound might land. They move while defenders are watching the ball.

Høgh’s hat-trick contained those qualities.

His opening goal came after barely a minute. The second and third arrived in quick succession later in the half, completing the hat-trick by the 35th minute.

That’s what I mean when I talk about Celtic having missed this type of striker.

You don’t necessarily notice the runs when the ball doesn’t reach him.

When it does?

Suddenly he’s standing five yards from goal and everyone wonders why nobody marked him.

Good strikers make those situations happen repeatedly.

His personality might be just as important, you know.

There’s another reason I wasn’t worried after Dundee.

Høgh didn’t look worried.

I mentioned this last week because his personality after the game genuinely reassured me.

There was no sign of somebody carrying the weight of that transfer fee around with him.

Instead, he came across as confident, relaxed and comfortable in his own skin.

That matters at Celtic.

Being the club’s record signing guarantees scrutiny. Every missed chance will be discussed. Every barren spell will become a talking point.

Høgh needs enough swagger to accept that and carry on.

His response to failing to score on his debut?

Score three in the first half of his next game.

That’ll do me.

£11 Million brings expectations – and so it should.

None of this means we should go in the opposite direction now.

Writing him off after one game would have been ridiculous.

Declaring him the second coming after two would be equally daft.

Høgh still has an enormous amount to prove at Celtic.

The fee makes sure of that.

Celtic broke their transfer record to bring him to Glasgow, with the deal reported at £11 million plus add-ons. He signed a four-year contract with the club holding an option for another year.

For that money, my expectations are high.

They should be.

I said on The Bhoycie Bus after Rugby Park that these are the goals I demand from an £11 million striker.

That’s not criticism.

It’s the standard.

If Arne Engels puts a quality ball into the back-post area, I want my number nine reading it and getting there.

When somebody slips him into the penalty area, I want him thinking about finishing first time.

Celtic have paid for a goalscorer.

Let him be judged as one.

The Numbers Before Celtic Weren’t An Accident

This is where last week’s argument comes back into play.

Høgh hadn’t arrived with nothing behind him.

More than 50 goals in just over 100 appearances for Bodø/Glimt is substantial evidence.

Then consider the level at which some of those performances came.

He wasn’t simply filling his boots against weak domestic opposition.

European football had already tested him.

Champions League football had tested him.

Pressure had tested him.

That’s why I couldn’t understand the rush to draw conclusions after Dundee.

One game doesn’t erase a career.

And one hat-trick doesn’t define one either.

What Rugby Park does provide, however, is an early demonstration of how Høgh’s established qualities might translate into this Celtic team.

That’s far more interesting.

Camilo Duran can help unlock him too.

Another aspect of Sunday’s performance shouldn’t be overlooked.

Camilo Duran got involved creatively, providing the assist for Høgh’s third.

I’ve liked what I’ve seen from Duran despite him not yet getting his own goal.

There is bravery in his play.

He wants the ball and looks willing to make something happen rather than constantly recycling possession and waiting for somebody else.

That could become important for Høgh.

A penalty-box striker is only as dangerous as the service being provided to him.

Engels has that quality.

Duran looks capable of creating.

Benjamin Nygren also appears to be developing an understanding with the new striker, I will write another article today taking a closer look at our talented Swede.

Build enough creativity around Høgh and his job becomes beautifully straightforward.

Get yourself into scoring positions.

We’ll find you.

I warned the Rangers fans to be careful what they wished for when it came to Kasper Hogh.

I wasn’t predicting that he’d definitely score a hat-trick six days later.

Nobody can predict football like that.

What I was saying was that the evidence from his debut didn’t remotely justify the micky taking they dished out.

Quite the opposite.

The chances he missed were evidence that he was getting himself into the positions required to score them.

His previous record told us those opportunities would usually be converted.

His demeanour suggested the misses hadn’t affected him.

Everything we knew about the player suggested goals would come.

At Rugby Park, they came in a flood.

That’s why sometimes it’s worth looking beyond the most obvious statistic on the screen.

It’s what Høgh potentially changes about Celtic aswell, we’ve got a striker who wants to occupy the penalty box.

A player whose first instinct appears to be finding the position from which he can hurt you.

Someone who doesn’t need three or four touches when one will do.

A centre-forward with a proven scoring record who has now opened his Celtic account in fairly spectacular fashion.

Three goals after two league appearances.

Only 27 more if we’re setting that 30-goal target.

And why shouldn’t we?

He’s Celtic’s record signing. He’s here to score goals. The club have invested heavily because they clearly believe his previous record can translate to Scotland.

After Dundee, I warned against judging him too quickly.

After Rugby Park, I’m not going to make the same mistake in reverse and tell you two games prove everything.

There will be difficult afternoons.

There will be misses.

There will probably be spells where the goals dry up and somebody inevitably asks the same questions again.

When that happens, remember what we’ve already seen.

Remember the movement against Dundee.

Remember the response afterwards.

Remember Rugby Park.

Because Celtic haven’t suddenly discovered that Kasper Høgh can score goals.

That’s exactly why they bought him.