Matt O’Riley sat down to speak to the mainstream media ahead of Celtic’s Scottish Premiership clash with St Johnstone on Saturday afternoon. Tomorrow’s match kicks off at 12.30pm on Christmas Eve at the home of the Champions. It’s another on the bounce after the match versus David Martindale’s Livingston on Wednesday night.
It was a rather drab affair all told the one in midweek and Ange Postecoglou will be hoping for a more commanding performance in terms of chances scored when Callum Davidson’s men roll into town tomorrow. The conditions never really helped Celtic in the last one and Livingston’s set-up makes evenings like that a hundred times worse.
Celtic have nevertheless been buoyed of late with the return to action of Callum McGregor. The inspirational club captain and academy graduate led by example on his first match back versus Aberdeen last weekend and kept the team ticking over during a frustrating game in the cinch Premiership against Livi too.
Matt O’Riley recognised the immeasurable contribution that Callum brings to proceedings on the daily and mentioned so today. The Danish U21 cap has enjoyed playing alongside the Scotland international since arriving last January and holds him in the highest of esteem. “It speaks for itself his importance both on and off the pitch, what he brings in terms of his leadership whether that be on the ball or vocally, he said.
“I know the position well but I think it takes one or two games to remember where to be exactly. I played it a lot in the past so I felt very comfortable. He’s a very good player first and foremost and I think he gets underrated a bit, if you understand football you understand how good he is in terms of all the details. In terms of what he brings on the pitch he adds a layer of calmness and vocally he’s very good at organising everything.”
Looking forward to the match-up with the Saints at Celtic Park, O’Riley admitted that the Bhoys are hoping for a better all-round performance this time but is confident they can get the job done once again against a low-block defensive shape. He said: “They’re hard to beat like most teams in this league, they set up in a certain way to stop us rather than winning the game in my opinion.
“It makes it difficult that they will have a lot of men behind the ball so our ball speed and circulation needs to be high and that should help us. We know what we need to do and you saw against Aberdeen how extreme it was with nine men behind their box, but we won that game so we proved we can break teams down.”
He said: “It might take a while but if we can commit to our football then it should end up working. Everyone knows where they need to be, the structure is very clear and we’ve worked on it a lot every day in training so there’s no real excuse for being in the wrong position that goes for all of us. I’m sure in the next game we will come back with that in our mind.”
Both O’Riley and his captain will be key in dictating the tempo of the play against the Perthshire outfit on the day. Mostly every team that comes to Parkhead refuses to come out and play football these days and it is becoming tedious for the supporters. But with the abundance of quality we possess in the side, we should be getting over the line quite comfortably tomorrow.
Watch Matt’s interview below…
Paul Gillespie
