Matt O'Riley

Good time to find his form, looking far more like himself and enjoying his football again.

 

Delighted for him.

 

Good display today.

 

Everything that Matt O'Riley said to Celtic TV after the Hoops 4-1 Scottish Premiership win over Kilmarnock at Rugby Park...

A double for you today and a man-of-the-match performance, it looked as if Celtic could have scored with every attack in the first half did it feel like that?

Yes, I think so. We were really fluid and we had a slight change to our shape in the midfield area but I think it worked really well. We had a lot of fluid rotations and I think they really struggled with that having two in midfield and us having Greg (Taylor) and Ali (Johnston) coming inside as well to overload it and I think it worked really well.

That's four goals for the season and 12 assists as well has it been somewhat frustrating for you this season with the goal tally despite weighing in so much in terms of supplying the goals?

Yeah, probably. I think it was the wait for the first goal which was probably the hardest bit mentally. I don't want that to come across as selfish because I am not that kind of player but when you are in my position it would have been nice to have scored one at least by that time of the season. When that first one came there was a sense of relief. I think now you are starting to see that it's a bit more effortless in terms of my performances and it's kind of happening now which is nice but as long as I am helping the team that is the main thing.


Tomoki Iwata came in and you spoke about that shape. He had a really impressive display. What do you make of him and what is it like to play alongside him?

Yeah, first and foremost he (Tomoki Iwata) is a tank. He's always in the gym doing upper body work and you should see the size of his arms which are probably bigger than most of our legs and that's impressive as it is. Even though he is such a tank as I said he is really composed on the ball. He is a really nice person and so is Yuki (Kobayashi) and both of them have settled in really nicely.

It is the final game before the split next week against Motherwell. Is the split something you have managed to get your head around as of yet?

No, not really to be honest. It's one game at a time and it's the same old boring answers but that's the reality and if we continue with the same approach until the end of the season we should be in a good place.

 

He's a classy player when he's on his game. The way he plays the ball is impressive.

 

Over the moon for him, you could tell recently he has been over doing it trying to hard and it wasn’t paying off.

think people forgot how young he is, again he has a good amount of assists and today he was * unreal.

 

Off the ball and in one v ones he is very good at not only winning the challenge but coming away with the ball. He is arguably one of if not the best in the team at that sort of scenario.

Good to see the attacking side of his game hitting the heights again. Excellent performance from him.

When Hatate is fit again (hopefully next weekend) we will have real options in there showing good form in McGregor, Iwata, Hatate and O’Riley. Also once Mooy gets back in the swing of things that’s five good options and Turnbull as sixth choice is always likely to get a goal or assist too.

 

Probably his best performance this season.

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He's looking rejuvenated all of a sudden.

Not * complaining because in the end if guys like O'Riley and Hatate are on form, our midfield is a terrifying prospect for Scottish football.

 

Big man looks to be hitting form again at just the right time. He's got to start against the huns, whether that's alongside Iwata or Reo.

 

He's hitting form alright at the right time, but I get the feeling he is putting himself in the shop window.
He does not look happy to me anymore and his body language is telling. In saying all of that, I would start
him against the Huns if Reo does not make it.

 

Aye, I still expect him to leave in the summer. Don't mind if so to be honest, might be the right time to cash in and replace him, kind of like Abada.

 

Yep.
I think O'Riley, Abada and Turnbull are all for the offski this summer. I personally won't miss any of them.
At least, not like I miss GG.
We need two new midfielders in the summer.

 

Inside the Celtic dressingroom: Unique group, friends, 'the nicest man I've ever met'
The Celtic dressingroom is clearly consists of some exceptionally talented football players, but as anyone within football will testify, you need far more than just that to be successful.




It is even harder when a number of nationalities and different cultures come together, as is the case with this current Celtic squad. Players from 16 different countries make up the first-team pool that manager Ange Postecoglou has assembled. While a few are from the British Isles, recruits have been plucked from all corners of the globe: Argentina, Australia, Canada and of course Japan, where a healthy cohort of internationalists are driving Celtic on to glory.

Currently on a 17-match winning run across all competitions, unbeaten since a defeat by current European champions Real Madrid in early November, the efforts made by Postecoglou, his coaching staff and particularly club captain Callum McGregor – a Scot – to gel the group are working. There is clear camaraderie within the Lennoxtown training base, and deep respect. Some players don’t get as much game-time as they would hope for but when called up, they fit into the starting XI pretty seamlessly. There were three changes to the team against Kilmarnock on Sunday – and notable absentees at that. Defender Cameron Carter-Vickers, midfielder Aaron Mooy and Jota were all rested, primarily to do with the stodgy synthetic surface at Rugby Park, but they were not missed. That was in part down to some horrific resistance from Killie early in the match but Postecoglou has the luxury and ability to call upon reinforcements and not be let down.



Matt O’Riley, Celtic’s 22-year-old Danish midfielder who scored twice on Sunday, knows what it means to be in both camps. He has experienced spells this season of being a starter every week to then dropping to the bench. He was impressed by the way Yuki Kobayashi, Tomoki Iwata and Sead Haksabanovic all contributed to the win. “That just shows the depth of our squad,” O’Riley explained. “Especially Yuki and Tomoki, they’ve come in from another country and culture and have settled in really quickly. It helps that they are both genuinely very nice people as well, so they’ve settled in to our culture very easily. They’re both really making an effort to speak English with us which definitely helps. On the pitch you can see they are enjoying themselves. Yuki probably hasn’t played as much as he wants to, but when he’s been asked he’s performed really well.”



O’Riley’s football upbringing took him from Milton Keynes to Glasgow. Others have moved from Petah Tikva in Israel, Suwon in South Korea and Lisbon in Portugal to be here. “It’s quite unique,” O’Riley said of the group. “We’ve got a lot of different nationalities in that team, with a nice blend of Japanese and pure Scottish guys who keep it, well, Scottish!


Does competition for places not lead to animosity at times and challenges with so many players wanting to play? O’Riley disagrees with that suggestion. “I don’t really find it challenging in that sense because they are all so nice,” he explained. “There are no hard feelings if someone plays over you; we’re still all going to chat and be friends. I don’t think that hinders us. It’s probably a benefit. Competition, in my opinion, always helps you play better. Last season personally I had that with Tom [Rogic], and to be able to compete with and also have the respect of someone like that definitely makes you play better. I’ve got that this season with so many good midfield players and the higher the level each one of us can play, it will continue to push the other players. It’s a nice balance and everyone is a genuinely nice person which helps massively.”




The fans’ favourite right now from the current crop is Kyogo Furuhashi. The striker has scored 29 goals across all levels this season – and could have netted his 30th when striking the post with a penalty. The miss did not seem to worry him. He was smiling before, and was smiling afterwards. O’Riley is also clearly a fully-paid up member of the Kyogo appreciation society. “He’s probably the nicest man I’ve ever met, genuinely,” he asserted. “It’s not just on the pitch with what you see, he’s genuinely the nicest man I’ve ever met. That guy could miss four open goals in a game and still be smiling, which I find incredible. It shows the kind of guy he is, and it’s really nice to have someone like that in your team – regardless of whether they miss or score, they’re still going to work hard. He knows he’s already got I don’t know how many goals so I don’t think he’s too fussed about missing one.”

That work-rate was on show in spades during a first-half moment when O’Riley lost possession and Furuhashi sprinted back the best part of 50 yards to win the ball back for him. Celtic were cruising at that point. “I remember it perfectly because I gave away the ball and he covered me nicely,” smiled O’Riley. “That shows the character of everyone in our team – it doesn’t matter who makes a mistake, someone else is going to be there to rectify it. I think we’ve shown that across the course of the season."




O’Riley himself feels like he is contributing more again. Moved to a deeper midfield role earlier in the season when McGregor was out in injured, he has been tasked with playing higher up the pitch in recent matches. Switching roles can be challenging for any player. “The initial transition took a bit of time, naturally, but I got quite comfortable playing in the deeper role by the end of it,” explained O’Riley. “It probably took me a bit of time to acclimate to that at the start, it took me three or four games to really start feeling comfortable, and it was probably the same when I went back up into the eight position. But now I’m feeling good.”

Just like everyone at Celtic, O’Riley is all about the collective – and that mindset is paying off in some style.