Matt O'Riley has shown in 11 months at Celtic that he’s just about got the lot.
But, with influential captain Callum McGregor now back in the fold, the midfielder also looks poised to end an unlikely drought and add yet another priceless string to his team’s bow. O’Riley’s creative influence has been evident since the moment he walked in the door in January and displayed on his debut when making a winning goal for Giorgos Giakoumakis against Hearts at Tynecastle.
The Denmark Under-21 star has a vision and a passing ability which can open up opposition. O’Riley already has an assist of the season contender on the board this term with his jaw-dropping through ball to set Jota away to score the second in the 4-0 destruction of Rangers in September high on the list. His dead-ball delivery is lethal and he can spot things quickly. That was clear during the second-half of last season when Celtic raced past their rivals to win the title and was again clear through his opening 11 outings of this term. However, when McGregor crunched into the 50-50 tackle in Leipzig which damaged his knee and left him agonisingly stuck on the sidelines for over two months, O’Riley spent his next 11 appearances showing his versatility and his adaptability to do the other side in filling the gaping void.
Covering the skipper is a daunting task for anyone, but he took on the role superbly. O’Riley worked from the base of the engine room and made things tick. He got his hands dirty doing the hard yards, making tackles, breaking up play and laying the platform for his team.
Although it was difficult at times against the cream in the Champions League, the fact that Celtic didn’t have a single slip domestically during the period without McGregor was testament to the brilliant work done by the likes of Reo Hatate and Aaron Mooy, but especially O’Riley.
Even from the withdrawn position, he kept making goals. The raking pass for Liel Abada against Dundee United, the desire in Motherwell’s box to win a tackle and put one on a plate for Kyogo Furuhashi at Fir Park.
Just like his captain, he’s the all-round package. They both possess the ability to make things happen at one end of the pitch and the application, workrate and game awareness to snuff out threats at the other.
Having only turned 22, there is bags more still to come from him and the weekend bounce clash with Rennes in Portugal gave notice that the next thing which starts to flow out of the player is goals.
O’Riley managed to get four for Postecoglou last season after signing from MK Dons in 20 appearances. Considering he had seven for the English League One side in the same campaign before moving north of the border, it was a reasonable return.
However, this term, O’Riley is one of the few stars in Ange Postecoglou’s side who have yet to open their account.
Fair enough, if Kyogo Furuhashi hadn’t knocked one over the line against Motherwell at Parkhead that was probably going in anyway or he hadn’t been unfortunately striking the goal frame or being denied by keepers, he’d be off the mark already.
But the bare facts, despite getting on the scoresheet for his country’s Under-21 side this term, say zero.
Given the amount of chances he creates and the positions he gets into, that is surely going to change just shortly.
It may just have been a training game in Portugal as Celtic build-up to top speed for the competitive return at Pittodrie, but there was real quality in O’Riley’s finishing against Rennes.
The first was hit on the half volley with his right foot. His second was swept artfully into the bottom corner with his left.
Equally comfortable on both sides, O’Riley has served notice that, when returning to more advanced positions more regularly as McGregor's back and patrolling the scene behind him for when the champions’ Premiership title defence gets going again at Aberdeen on Saturday, he is set to consign that statistical scoring blank for the season to the dustbin.
It’s a highly encouraging proposition for Celtic given the fact they already have an array of talent and weaponry in their ranks.
Adding goals from O’Riley into the mix just gives opposition managers another headache to add to their long lists.
Goals are, of course, not really an issue when it comes to Kyogo. The Japanese star has 11 on the board to lead the club’s charts at this stage of the season and he was back in the groove in Portugal with a typical run off the shoulder of a defender and a cute finish which was lobbed over the stranded Rennes keeper in the subsequent one-on-one joust.
O’Riley and Kyogo were amongst the raft of players who got a run out in the training match to assist their preparations for the real action which resumes in the Granite City.
Yuki Kobayashi got the final 12 minutes of the contest to get his first taste of Celtic action at the end of the working week in Portugal.
Although the latest Asian signing cannot feature for the first-team until January 1, the rest look ready to go and will be supplemented by the return of a trio of World Cup stars for the next days at Lennoxtown.
Postecoglou has confirmed that, although Josip Juranovic is still in Qatar with semi-finalists Croatia, Cameron Carter Vickers, Daizen Maeda and Aaron Mooy will all return from their Middle Eastern adventure at the game’s biggest show. O’Riley just didn’t make the Qatar cut to go with Denmark. But he’s vital to Celtic.
Ironically, his first-ever goal for the club came against the Dons at Pittodrie.
On the evidence of his frightening finishing in Portugal, he’s already got his eye in for Saturday’s return to the North East.
