Oh Hyeon-gyu seems a perfect fit for Celtic on and off the pitch -

The conventional wisdom is that the January transfer window is a difficult time to get business done.

For clubs forced into the market, this can be true. Replacing a key player, somebody who has been poached from your ranks by a bigger club, is tricky at short notice. Even tougher is the search for a footballer good enough to help you fend off relegation but also not quite good enough to have other, more attractive options elsewhere.

At Celtic, commonly held beliefs about this time of year are being dispelled.

Reo Hatate, Matt O’Riley, Daizen Maeda and Alistair Johnston are evidence of the club’s ability to recruit well at mid-season under current manager Ange Postecoglou.

On Sunday against Dundee United, during a game that would bring his 50th Scottish Premiership win (in just 61 games), Postecoglou gave latest signing Oh Hyeon-gyu a debut from the bench.

Analysis of Oh indicates this is another smart January transfer by Celtic.

A passage of play shortly after his introduction in the 82nd minute at Tannadice hinted at the blend of attributes the 21-year-old South Korea international possesses.

Oh attempts to pin the Dundee United central defender in the home team’s penalty area, firmly planting his feet and creating a low centre of gravity in order to receive a pass.

The ball is deflected back out to the wing and should lead to a straightforward clearance but, not for the only time in this short cameo appearance, Oh uses a burst of acceleration and wins possession back for Celtic.

Since Postecoglou was appointed in the summer of 2021, Celtic’s centre-forwards have tended to operate centrally, almost within the width of the goalposts.

However, Oh is skilled at running the channels and shows his composure in wide areas in this instance. He attempts to take on the United defender, something neither Kyogo Furuhashi nor Giorgos Giakoumakis would be likely to do, and won his team a throw-in high up the pitch.

Oh’s combination of strength and mobility places him, stylistically, somewhere in between the Plan A of Furuhashi and Plan B Giakoumakis.

Signed from Suwon Samsung Bluewings in his homeland for £2.5million (around $3.1m), Oh views Erling Haaland, Luis Suarez and Cristiano Ronaldo as role models. However, as a youth he based his game on Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, a Dutch striker famed for his aerial ability and one-touch finishing (Oh is represented by a German football agency and Huntelaar had a successful period at Schalke in the Bundesliga during the Korean’s formative teenage years around a decade ago).

Oh was prolific himself back then, both for his school team on the eastern outskirts of Seoul and once he joined the Bluewings’ academy in Suwon, a short drive south of his country’s capital, in 2014.

He was top scorer at the 2016 Gyeongsangbuk-do International Tournament — an invitational event in his homeland in which he represented a Korean youth select side against Asian opponents including Japan’s Vissel Kobe and European invitees such as Eintracht Frankfurt of Germany.

His developing attributes, which include a powerful leap and accurate headers, led to international caps from under-14s up to under-23s level.

In April 2019, just two weeks after turning 18, Oh made his senior debut for the Bluewings in the Korean top flight — K League 1. In that 2019 season (Korean football operates within the calendar year, from February to November) he played 382 minutes in 12 appearances, making five starts.

Oh opted to serve his two years of military service, compulsory for all Korean men by the age of 35, almost as soon as possible to minimise its impact on his playing career. As a result, Bluewings loaned him to the army’s football team for the 2020 and 2021 seasons.

He rarely played in the first year there, making just four appearances and scoring twice for a side who were relegated, but season two brought five goals and three assists in 1,102 minutes — the equivalent of 12 full matches — as Gimcheon Sangmu won the second division.

The return to Bluewings for 2022 was initially a slow burn, before a goal-laden end to the season.

Oh scored just three times in his first 22 league appearances but then got 11 more in his final 16 including three in the relegation play-offs, and only one of the 14 was a penalty.

In addition, the struggling Bluewings were third-worst of the 12 teams in the division for expected goals per 90 at 1.13 and only created an average of 10.24 shots each match. In the Scottish Premiership, that is comparable with Motherwell and St Johnstone, so Oh’s output was impressive given the circumstances.

A strike against FC Seoul, his first of two goals in a 3-1 win last September showed the influence boyhood hero Huntelaar continued to have on his style.

He has managed to drift onto the blindside of his marker here and has space in the box to attack as his team-mate readies an audacious volleyed cross from the left wing.

Oh makes a dart for the penalty spot — a movement more typical for him than the near-post runs Furuhashi normally makes for Celtic — and stretches to make a first-time finish.

His technique is excellent and the shot beats the goalkeeper and finds the far corner, just inside the post.

On October 29, the Celtic newcomer’s domestic season — and Bluewings career — culminated with the goal that saved his boyhood club from relegation.

Bluewings had ended the regular season in 10th position and faced a two-legged play-off against second-tier side FC Anyang to decide who would be in the 2023 top flight.

With a penalty shootout looming, Oh scored in the dying moments of extra time in the second leg — securing the best send-off imaginable to his Bluewings fans.

Less than two weeks later, he won his first senior cap in South Korea’s final pre-World Cup friendly against Iceland. Oh did enough to be put on standby for the final 26-man squad, travelling in the party to Qatar and participating in training as they got to the last 16.

Celtic have made this purchase at the right time, with Oh still on an upward trajectory.

His Celtic debut ended with another example of his creative ability.

First, he wins the ball back near the halfway line…

… then he peels off to the right wing to receive a pass, again showing his comfort in wide areas.

Oh led the Bluewings for involvements in open-play sequences which ended in shots, according to Opta, being involved in an attempt on goal, either one of his own or through participation in the build-up every 21 minutes.

His perfectly-placed cross here, which Maeda should have converted, means he is off to an even quicker start at chance creation in Scotland.

Ultimately though, it’s inside the penalty area where Oh’s blend of power and athleticism will matter most for Celtic — seven of his 12 non-penalty goals last season were scored from locations between the posts and closer to goal than the penalty spot.

“I know Celtic are a very proactive team,” Oh said on his arrival in Glasgow. “I think I am a player who is very strong in the box.’

Oh’s combination of attributes means he brings something different to the team but is still a good stylistic fit for Postecoglou’s tactics. He appears able to contribute immediately but also has the potential to develop further and eventually leave the club for a significant profit after helping them win more trophies.

(Top photo: Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)

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