Matt O'Riley

This! He spent too much time talking about how he was going to make the World Cup, rather than just making them pick him. All the stories of him linked to the PL have distracted him, he needs to get his head down again and do the hard yards. He’s in danger of getting dropped, not even in the best midfield 3 at Celtic, let alone a Prem Club.

 

I don’t think it’s bought into the hype, he covered for McGregor brilliantly and looks to be struggling re-adapting again.


Honestly think he just needs one cracking game and he’ll be fine. He’s a young guy. Inconsistency comes with young players.

 

Wonder if hes homesick or something, his form has taken a dramatic drop so something is up.
Lately doesnt look happy at all.

 

I just think he needs dropped. He has perhaps gotten comfortable being picked every game. Needs a rocket up him to kickstart him again. I know he has played a lot of the season out of position, but to not have scored at all this season is poor.

 

He’s just a young player struggling for consistency, he had a brilliant first 6 months here and has struggled to replicate that so far.

I think what does go unnoticed is his defensive work, he constantly wins the ball back for us in the middle of the pitch and puts in the work. He needs to sharpen up his final ball and decision making but that will come with experience.

A good time for him to be benched for a few games, give Mooy and Iwata game time.

 

Well his parents moved up here with him so I'm not sure why that would be.

A dramatic drop is over stating things a little, he was racking up the assists before being asked to drop deeper to cover for Cal. Which he did a really good job of btw. He's just not hit his stride again since moving back up to his no8 position, could be a matter of needing time to adjust.

In terms of creating and imposing himself on games, I also think probably he is missing that competition. When he first joined Tam was away on international duty, so Matt slotted right in, then he did a good job right away. So as a young player he would have been thinking to himself "I've a good chance of keeping my starting place here" then the bloke he was covering comes back and demolishes Motherwell. Matt would have been watching Rogic in that game and realised to impose himself on the starting XI he needed to do a lot more than just a good job.

Our midfield have all had good spells but none of them are having the kind of season Tam had last year, when a player is flying like that it makes everyone around them lift their game and players in contention for their spot work even harder.

So really what I'm saying is we should have locked Tam in the boot room and not let him leave *

 

Aye, look at the first goal against the Huns, he plays a big pary

 

Re watched this morning, think we are being harsh on him. He was very strong up until Hart * up and we lost the momentum and he was one of the reasons the wheels stayed on for the duration of the first half afterward. Won possession and kept possession numerous times, very hard to bully him off the ball. What we need is the strength he uses to stay on the ball while being kicked by 3 huns, to transfer down into his shooting foot and we're laughing.

 

Feel for him..

Wasn't bad by any stretch but passing was a bit iffy at times again. Something missing from his game..

 

Confidence mate. He looks really unconfident just now.

 

I feel something isn't quite right with Matt....
the body language exposes a bit of it.
no idea what it might be but he's (mentally) not where he was when he'd started palying for us.

 

His confidence looks shot.

Hasn't kicked on at all this season. Thought he'd be POTY contender. He's not been bad per se, but has been outshone by pretty much everyone else in midfield.

I don't remember him being this sloppy with the ball last season. He's * up simple passes and miss-controlling easy balls constantly this year.

 

Did anyone hear Peter grant say he has a back issue growing up and they didn’t know if he would be able to make it pro due to it.

I think he gets a goal or 2 and he will be back on track

 

Needs to have a bit of a refresh and start over, I feel, just clearly not in a great place football-wise right now. Not sure when that'll come, hopefully before the end of the season.

 

He’s being outshone by Turnbull who’s lucky to get 15/20 minute cameos at the end of games that are already done when we’ve got our foot well off the gas.

Very sloppy on the ball and his touch is nowhere near what it was last season. I thought he was going to kick on and be massive for us this season but it’s just not really happened for him bar a few games.

 

Aye. First I'd heard of that..

 

I knew he has bad asthma didn’t know anything about his back