Matt O’Riley opened his account for the season with a neat finish in the opening stages to give Celtic the lad against Rapid Vienna on Saturday evening.
And the January signing from MK Dons has every reason to look forward to the new season after a dream start to his time at Paradise saw him contribute extensively to the Scottish Premiership win and his performances being noted by the Denmark International set-up which resulted in his first Under 21 caps in the summer and a tantalising prospect of making the Denmark squad for the World Cup in Qatar at the end of the year.
O’Riley has very much bought into the system and the philosophy at Celtic under Ange Postecoglou, indeed he admits that hit suits him perfectly and the progress he’s made in such a short time at the club is quite remarkable.
There’s no concerns about working about what other clubs might be doing to challenge Celtic for the title and there’s little to be bothered about as far as the Danish Under 21 international is concerned about Celtic’s need for a midfield enforcer seemingly being frustrated in the summer transfer window.
💬 "It was a perfect test and perfect for what we needed because they were a good side and it was a good atmosphere for pre-season which was nice.'
📺 @mattoriley8: I had a few cobwebs to blow off against Rapid but I feel stronger for the experience#SuccessNeverRests🍀
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) July 11, 2022
O’Riley reckons he’s got the perfect solution to that – play well and it becomes irrelevant.
Not sure that Ange would agree though!
Speaking to the media at the Celtic training camp, the Celtic midfielder outlined his thoughts on all of this, starting with any challenge that Celtic may face for the Scottish Premiership title.
“We expect everyone to come back strong,” O’Riley said as reported by Scottish Sun. “We focus on how we can improve. And if we do that the rest will take care of itself. It is down to us at the end of the day and that comes from the top of the club all the way down.
“Training standards are high, off the park standards are high. We just need to keep pushing as high as we can. When we play at our best we can beat just about anyone.
“It is doing that week in, week out and continually pushing each other to be better.
“If we do it well on the pitch then it will work. That is why we work hard on the training pitch, because if we keep improving, step by step, we are going to be a really good team.”
On that missing midfield link so far unfilled O’Riley gives his view on how to nullify the need for an enforcer.
“When we play well it’s irrelevant. There are times and games when you need a more solid foundation. But if we perform and execute the game-plan as we should then everything else will take care of itself.
“The style suits me to a T. I’m at a massive club and they play the football I want to play. It’s a win-win in that sense. I just want to keep improving myself because I still feel I have a lot more to show and give. I feel really settled, which is the main thing.”
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This young team is just getting started and they’re already League Champions.
The whole clubs in a fantastic position atm, and have shown real intent that they don’t intend to rest on their laurels.
*Going off topic slightly, it can’t be just me who’s noticed this; European teams we play, the good one’s that is, all seem to have a similar system and style of play that enables individual players to cover much more ground with seemingly less effort(than us), and I’m thinking its down to zonal football and players rigidly sticking to their positions, roles and shape, which is something we rarely do ourselves?
It was the Rapid game that brought it back to me, having seen it repeatedly over the years, particularly with teams we find difficult.
Its one of those games, football, where there are numerous ways to set a team up, and all can be equally successful, but it does give a team who are not exactly bustling with superstars, an edge, to play the disciplined European style.
We tend to just go on the attack, which I’m not knocking completely as its entertaining, but we often leave ourselves short in numbers and out of shape at the back doing so, which is often our downfall against teams we should be beating but who have a more rigid/better organised systematic approach to their game which often proves to be the difference in their favour.
…just had to get that off my mind!