Suggestion: Matt O'Riley

dimanche 12 juin 2022

21-year-old central midfielder for Celtic, having joined from MK Dons in January. Born in London but plays for Danish under-21s.

I watched a lot of Celtic after Ange Postecoglou was appointed last season, and when I say a lot, I mean practically every match lol. So I have a pretty good read on their squad and also the level of competition, which of course has to be taken into account when considering a player.

They have a few good players: Callum McGregor of course, the Japanese striker Kyogo, Jota, CCV, Croatian International Josip Juranovic and Liel Abada, the young Israeli winger we were reportedly looking at. But I think O'Riley could actually be the best prospect, and although not at Aribo's level right now (who we've been strongly linked with) very possibly a better player moving forward. He's already the more creative of the two and in that respect, it's not even close. Celtic supporters are big on him, thinking he's destined for the Premier League or similar.

A bit of background. Played his youth football for Fulham but opportunities in the first team were limited, so despite being offered a new deal, left to find another club where he would play regularly. That wasn't easy because this was right at the beginning of the pandemic with all the uncertainty that went with that for clubs, so unable to find a new team immediately, trained on his own until an opportunity came up with MK Dons. I think this says something about him: turned down guaranteed money from Fulham to play in a lower league, because he backed his own ability. He quickly then became a key player and one of the best players in League One. Had a £1.5 million release clause in his contract, so was destined to leave when he did. He was wanted by Swansea and a couple other Championship clubs, and reportedly had several offers on the table before signing for Celtic.

When O'Riley signed for Celtic, I remember reading that a Premier League analyst (I think it was for Liverpool) who was looking at all the leagues in England, found that O'Riley kept popping up in like the 97th, 98th percentile for loads of different attacking metrics, like key passes, assists per 90 minutes and that kind of stuff. Most of this translated to Scotland, as can be seen here:



Indeed, O'Riley really hit the ground running, and had to, joining around the time of a bit of an injury/players away on International duty crisis. That may not be so surprising, because outside of Celtic and Rangers, the rest of the SPL is probably around League One standard, but the obvious difference between playing for Mk Dons and Celtic is the pressure and expectation to win every match. His second game was a starting 11 place in the Old Firm for example, where he was excellent.

The knock against him is that he's not quick and looks a bit, let's say... stiff. He's tall at 187cm though, and has a great feel for the game. He's also kind of savvy defensively (as highlighted in the second part of the below video) often nicking the ball away from opponents from behind/the side.

What really stands out though is his vision and ability to pick a pass - something we've long lacked and IMO need, if we hope to see the best out of a player like Edouard. He's fairly versatile too - his best position being an attacking midfielder, but also comfortable as an 8 and having played in the past as a deep-lying playmaker type.

Bound to attract more attention if he breaks into the Danish senior International side, which appears to be his trajectory, so let's get on this quickly, Dougie.

*edit* I can't seem to embed the video, so link to Youtube highlights here:

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