Matt O’Riley has had somewhat of a thankless task in replacing our captain Callum McGregor these past few weeks. The young English/Danish midfielder has never hid front the duties and responsibilities of such a role within the team and has kept us ticking over during games of late, even when we’ve been struggling.
Deployed as the screen just in front of the defence, O’Riley has had the legs run off of him in the Champions League of late. Even so, he had shower up well it has to be said and his contribution to the team in a defensive sense has been particularly admirable. Once again in the Bernabèu last night he did all he could recovering the ball a couple of times.
Ange Postecoglou Celtic, NOVEMBER 2, 2022 – Champions League. Real Madrid v Celtic at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.
Truth be told, he was always up against it with a midfield of the classy Luka Modric and Toni Kroos. Matt couldn’t be accused of not pulling his weight that much is obvious. But when the calibre of player goes that high, it becomes a bit of a mismatch; especially when your playing a slightly foreign role than what your used to.
He revealed after the game that if he and his teammates were to do it all again they could know where the potential pitfalls were. The 21 year-old conversed with PLZ Soccer post-match and revealed the experience will make them better players and team, even if it was heavy the last outing.
Quick to point to the fact that only a few selected players within this current camp at Lennoxtown had experienced football at that level beforehand, O’Riley is insistent that he and the others will learn abundantly more from this experience, despite the disappointing final points tally.
Watch Matt’s interview with PLZ Soccer:
Paul Gillespie
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