Journalist Tony Haggerty hailed Celtic’s midfield star man Matt O’Riley for his performance in the Bhoys’ 2-0 win over Hearts on Sunday.
Celtic extended their lead to two points at the top of the Scottish Premier League after their 2-0 win over Hearts while rivals Rangers failed to take all three points home in their away outing against Hibernian on Saturday.
While the goals were scored by star duo Kyogo Furuhashi and Giorgos Giakoumakis, one man who has since garnered a lot of praise is midfielder O’Riley, who made just his 24th appearance for the Scottish giants since he arrived from Milton Keynes Dons back in January 2022.
According to Haggerty of The Celtic Way, the 21-year-old showed his natural gift during the game with his control of the ball and his ability to pick out his teammates while also knowing when to take his own chances.
Haggerty wrote, “Denmark Under-21 international O’Riley produced the cutest of nutmegs on Alex Cochrane inside two minutes and demonstrated again that he really is a sublimely gifted footballer by displaying fantastic close control.
“He smashed a wonderful hook shot inches wide of the target with just two touches and picked out Maeda with a wonderful cross too. He saw a second-half piledriver saved by Stewart. However, his game intelligence and all-around spatial awareness should really be the stuff of case studies. 8”.
TIF Thoughts on O’Riley’s performance…
While he may not be the stand-out name of the day, it is easy to see why O’Riley was awarded an eight out of ten performance when looking at his impressive Sofascore stats from the game.
According to the site, in his 72 minutes on the pitch, he managed 53 touches with 82% passing accuracy which included one key pass, one cross and one long ball completed, earning him 100% in that category. In comparison, Kyogo, who was awarded Man of the Match, only had 16 touches and failed to make a key pass (SofaScore).
He also managed one shot on target which was described as a ‘piledriver’ and won three of his ground duels. The Dane also helped out on the defensive side of the ball, making two tackles and one clearance as he earned himself a 7.2-match rating.
Ange Postecoglou will be hoping players like O’Riley can continue this good run of form as they endured a cagey match with Hearts and if it wasn’t for the bravery of their players, they could have thrown points away like their rivals. Despite only being four games in, it looks like this season is going to be tight, so the boss will be happy his boys managed to grind out a result and put themselves in the driver’s seat so early.
Will O'Riley take off this season?Yes
No
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