Celtic have continued to improve their squad in the January transfer window with the signing of South Korean striker Oh Hyeon-gyu.
A deal was agreed for the striker earlier this week, with Celtic signing the 21-year-old for a fee of £2.5million after failing to complete a move for fellow countryman, Cho Gue-sung. With Giorgos Giakoumakis looking set for a move away from the Hoops this month, Ange Postecoglou has deemed Oh his replacement.
Oh becomes Celtic's fourth signing of the month following the arrivals of Alistair Johnston, Yuki Kobayashi and Tomoki Iwata. Since returning to Suwon Samsung Bluewings from a loan spell at Gimcheon Sangmu in 2021, the striker has scored 14 goals in 40 games for the Korean outfit.
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So, how could Oh perform with the Hoops following his transfer? We simulated the rest of the season to try and find out.
We simulated Oh Hyeon-gyu's first season at Celtic following January transfer
To set up this simulation, we used the Football Manager 2023 editor to move Oh to Celtic Park this month, using FM23 to run the simulation. We then simulated the remainder of the 2022/23 season to see if the striker could have a big impact on the rest of the Hoops' season.
With the 21-year-old relatively inexperienced, Oh didn't feature regularly for Celtic on his arrival, making most of his appearances from the bench. But, as the season went on, he picked up form, and Oh managed to make 12 appearances under Postecoglou over the course of the season.
The striker only appeared in the Scottish Premiership, with three of his games starts, and nine from the bench. In that time, the striker had an impressive return, grabbing three goals, three assists and winning the player of the match award once.
Oh also averaged a rating of 7.12 per game, showing how impressive he was in his limited game time. When compared to the rest of the Rangers squad, you can see how good he was for the amount of game time he received.
The South Korean averaged one goal contribution every two games, with only Kyogo Furuhashi, Liel Abada and Jota recording a better average. Kyogo ended the season as Celtic's top scorer with 26 goals, whilst Jota socred 10 and assisted 19.
At the end of the 2022/23 season, Football Manager 2023 put together an overall best Celtic XI, based on performances, statistics and other metrics. This is what it looked like:
Full Celtic best XI: (4-3-3): Hart; Juranovic, Carter-Vickers, Starfelt, Bernabei; Mooy, Abildgaard, McGregor; Abada, Kyogo, Jota.
As expected, Oh didn't make the Celtic best XI, with Jota, Kyogo and Abada all occupying the front three spots. Oliver Abildgaard made the midfield alongside Aaron Mooy and Callum McGregor as Matthew O'Riley, Reo Hatate and David Turnbull all missed out, whilst Alexandro Bernabei started over Greg Taylor at left back.
Celtic's results with Oh
Celtic held a nine-point gap over Rangers at the top of the Scottish Premiership when Oh arrived at the club, and at the end of the season, the Hoops had extended that lead as they won the title. Some poor results at the end of the season saw the Gers drop off from Celtic, with the two teams finishing a whopping 17 points apart.
The Hoops ended the season as the league's top scorers and with the best defence, ending the campaign with nine league wins in a row. The last two league meetings between the Old Firm rivals saw each team pick up a victory, with Celtic winning 3-1 before losing 1-0.
Celtic added to their league success by winning both domestic competitions, completing a fantastic treble in the simulation. A 2-0 win over Rangers secured the Viaplay Cup, whilst a shock run saw Scottish League One side Airdrie reach the Scottish Cup Final, but they couldn't go all the way as Celtic won 3-0 at the final hurdle.
Overall, FM23 predicts that Oh could prove the perfect backup striker for Kyogo at Celtic, with the 21-year-old grabbing a goal contribution every two games in his first few months at the club during the simulation. Oh found himself leading the line in the league whilst Kyogo was rested for big cup games, with the 21-year-old helping the Hoops win three trophies.
Do you think Oh will be a success at Celtic ? Let us know below!
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