Matt O'Riley

obviously the Atletico bid made his head turn a bit. The only reason I can see for his drop off in form is that he now thinks he's better than what he is and he doesn't need to try and impress anymore. If he keeps playing like this though Atletico won't come anywhere near him again. Need to step it up big time

 

Form is temporary , class is permanent. He is suffering, along with the rest of the team in a collective drop in form. There have been glimpses of a return to the player we know he is in recent weeks. A player we should really be looking to build a future team around rather than hawk round and sells off for money that we don't really need.

 

I agree but we are a selling club. Ajax, Benfica etc are all selling clubs. They don't build around young players because they know they won't be there long. If they're foreign there's even less chance of them ever getting past 3 years at a club.

Our only chance to build around players is promoting youth or buying young Scots e.g. McGregor, Brown etc.

Realistically, we should be scouring youth teams and buying the cream of the crop with a view of making them the next McGregor longevity player(s).

Lennon Miller and David Watson are the next players we should be getting in to start the ball rolling. Them, along with Kelly and Frame, could (and should) be our future.

That's not to say that that should be our O'Riley replacements. We still need to spend big on someone that can fill the void.

 

We should only be a selling club when we need to be. With an absolute fortune in the bank, and in such a healthy state we are able to keep our best players now and build a strong team that is able to dominate domestically and compete in Europe.

Of course we have a board that will drop it's knickers for almost any half decent feet that comes in for a player.

 

He’d have been away in January if that was the case

 

It's all about what the player wants, not what the board do or don't accept. You can't just tell players no you're not leaving, if they have interest from clubs they want to pursue.

 

If they are on a long enough contract you absolutely can. And if the club has the same ambition as the player then there is every chance they can achieve there ambitions here.

 

You're right, and if we hadn't been such a car crash in terms of results I think they would have sold him.

 

Had one of his worst games for us today. Couldn't get involved, passing was off and cost us a goal. Really need him to up his performance to pre contract signing levels.

 

* me off a bit.

Has so much quality and is using the worst period of the season to produce his worst spell of performances.

We need big mentalities as well as big quality. Matt is still to show that elite mentality for me despite being part of a treble-winning side last season.

A lot more responsibility on him during this run-in and he's not producing.

 

Aye he was absolutely * today and we're really going to need him to step it up if McGregor is out

 

He looks in desperate need of a rest, something he will struggle to get if the rumours about Calmac being out for the rest of the season have any foundation to them. Hatate coming back was something I was waiting on to be able to kick on the others and allow guys who are crucial to us to get a chance to rest because he’s just as quality.

But O’Riley looks dog tired, properly leggy, and he’s usually a player who looks like he could be heavy legged but turns out in complete control with an odd stride. But he looks tired. I was thinking at first he’d missed a few sitters and head was going down after all the talk of a massive move for him, but then the Dundee game he was absolutely at his best, scored, and everything was coming off for him except being a bawhair away from goal of the season.

Last week he was poor, but apparently was playing through a virus, today there’s no excuses.

He’s shown he’s a guy that we should be able to rely on, who can be a leader, who can be counted. He needs to have that pointed out to him and rise up to meet expectations.


He’s absolute quality, and still a young guy and has had a terrific attitude to improve and the way he plays but he had a wee dip last year and a spell on the bench when he couldn’t raise his game, clearly questioning himself a bit with the full thing about no goals, most shots. He absolutely made sure that was corrected going into this season, because he’s driven as *, he needs to do it without a break and tired now though. He’s the main man in there with no Calmac, he’s not got a safety of the leader in there now. He needs to step up, because we know he can

 

Ideally he would be dripped for a game or 2 but nearly impossible to do given our cm situation

 

Can switch to a 4-4-2.

 

Rodgers said he'd been out all week "ill" so might explain his drop in yesterday. Really needs a break

 

We don't have anyone to give him a break just now. Litterly everyone is injured

 

Think its clear Rodgers isn't shifting from his system..

Didn't do it when Taylor was injured and we didn't have a viable replacement, can't see him doing it now.

 

Certainly wouldn't be against it

 

What's his excuse for all the other * performances since January