Celtic's delicious dilemma - how do Kyogo Furuhashi and Giorgos Giakoumakis get striker spot?

The equation for Celtic seemed obvious, if not straightforward, when Kyogo Furuhashi was lost to a long-term injury in the closing week of last year.

The mission for Ange Postecoglou amounted to deploying whatever means available to offset the absence of the club’s pre-eminent performer and hang on to Rangers’ coat-tails in the title race until the time, with his hamstring issues resolved, the Japanese forward could be dropped back into the central striker role in which he had lit up Scottish football across his first six months.

Furuhashi is approaching that point of being available for his club’s first game back following the international break – a trip across the city to Ibrox a week on Sunday. Yet, the squad to which Celtic’s 16-goal top scorer will return, and the position they have manoeuvred themselves, is not as anticipated. All of which raises intriguing questions about how best to accommodate him.

When Furuhashi pulled up against St Johnstone on Boxing Day, Postecoglou’s side were six points adrift of Rangers and regarded to be entirely dependent on his energy and eviscerating runs. Flipping that into a three-point advantage by adapting to the wholly different Giorgos Giakoumakis as their free-scoring focal point with nine in seven outings, has created an obvious poser: could Furuhashi and the Greek goal-sniffer somehow be permed into a partnership?

It remains a fact that the £4.6m summer buy from Vissel Kobe is the club’s most precious, influential asset. To employ current footballing techobabble, Furuhashi is the trigger for Celtic’s press. He elevates, and invigorates, Postecoglou’s team. For his part, Giakoumakis might be more lethal in the six-yard box, where his aggression, anticipation and octopus-style