THE REAL DEAL
Celtic midfielder O’Riley has little doubt that his skipper McGregor could walk into Madrid engine room and shine amongst megastars
JOURNEYS into the rarefied atmosphere of the Champions League earlier this season offered Matt O’Riley a couple of midfield masterclasses at the feet of footballing royalty in Luka Modric and Toni Kroos. The 22-year-old Celtic man insists he rubs shoulders with a player of similar calibre every single week at club level, though, in the form of his captain Callum McGregor.
O’Riley was given a close-up look at the top of the game during the Parkhead club’s Group F campaign when coming up against Croatian magician Modric and German World Cup winner Kroos and suffering a 3-0 defeat at home and a 5-1 hammering in the Bernabeu.
It showed him what it takes to be the best and stay there long-term. Gave an insight into the levels that exist throughout the game. And confirmed his own view that, in McGregor, Celtic have a player who could walk into the engine room of the Spanish champions beside stellar talents known and respected across the world and succeed.
‘Yeah, I think Cal is at a similar level,’ said the Denmark midfielder.
‘Respectfully, if he was put into a team like Real Madrid, I think he would fit in pretty easily.
‘I have played with a lot of good players and Cal is up with the best of them. He is a very important player, captain for the club and a genuinely nice guy on top of that. We are lucky to have him.’
McGregor missed the second of those losses to Real Madrid thanks to spending just over a month out of action over October and November with a knee problem.
O’Riley filled in as the fulcrum of the midfield in his absence and admits that period gave him an even greater appreciation of the job the Scotland star does for Celtic.
‘I learned a lot playing there and it was good for me as an individual to do so,’ reflected the former MK Dons man. ‘You learn different things, things you can add to your game and I think I probably got slightly better towards the end of my time playing there.
‘It helped having Cal there to give me certain tips on it because, of course, he has played the position so much. I would say I am probably better defensively now than before I started playing as a six.’
Of course, O’Riley’s plaudits for his team-mate are in danger of being lost amid the avalanche of praise being sent McGregor’s way in the wake of Scotland’s Euro 2024 victories over Cyprus and Spain.
McGregor played the entire 180 minutes of both games. As if to prove his conditioning and his relentlessness, that lung-bursting run in the closing stages of the famous victory over La Roja — surging past opponents before setting up substitute Lawrence Shankland for a shot on goal — has attracted plenty of comment.
For O’Riley, though, it was nothing he hasn’t seen a million times before.
‘I saw that Cal was still bursting through players in the 90th minute, which kind of just sums him up,’ he said. ‘I was happy for him and I was happy for Scotland.
‘It looked like they did really well, which was good to see.’
McGregor will be back leading his side towards what seems an inevitable league title in the more rustic surroundings of Dingwall this afternoon when Ross County provide the opposition.
The Highland outfit gave Celtic a real challenge at Parkhead in November when losing out 2-1 after going ahead early in the second half through a David Cancola penalty.
O’Riley conceded that controversial spot-kick after the ball bounced up and touched his arm. He complained afterwards on Celtic TV and famously said: ‘We’ve had some strange decisions go against us recently but they still can’t stop us, so that’s all right’.
He is a little more diplomatic now when asked to comment on VAR in Scotland since.
‘It is a tough question. I don’t have too much to say on it,’ he said. ‘It has probably been good in that we now get the right decisions — especially for stuff like offsides.
‘Of course, because it is quite new to Scotland, there are going to be things to improve. Everyone is doing their best to manage it as we go.
‘It is a long time since we played Ross County, but I can remember it well. I gave away a penalty, so it was not the most fun day in that sense.
‘We managed to come back and get the win in the end, though, which is what matters. I think we know roughly what to expect from them this time. They are usually quite man-focused, so it will probably be a tough game that way.
‘I would reckon they will try to stick to what worked last time because, as much as they lost, they got quite a lot of joy from it. At the same time, we kind of know what to do if we come up against a low block and a team that tries to shut us down.
‘We have played against a lot of different systems and formations this season and we always seem to find a solution.’
It was Reo Hatate who was at the head of the queue in finding solutions that afternoon, showing incredible footwork to dance past a handful of County players before setting up David Turnbull for the equaliser.
Hatate looks likely to miss out this afternoon, but O’Riley is pleased to hear that Japan coach Hajime Moriyasu plans to watch him in the upcoming Scottish Cup semi-final with Rangers after leaving him out of his squad recently.
‘We don’t know what goes on in the Japanese international headquarters, so maybe they have certain reasoning that we don’t know about, but you would have to think Reo will get his chance in due course,’ he said.
O’Riley knows competition to get into the team ahead of the likes of Hatate is getting tougher and tougher, but he believes manager Ange Postecoglou’s strategy of strengthening with a handful of players every window is already paying off in terms of giving him the ability to rotate his talent over the course of a long season.
‘We definitely brought in good players who have added to the squad,’ he said. ‘You can see now that if we bring on a sub or subs at 60 minutes that the level actually increases.
‘We have to (rotate). It is the best way to get success over the long term. There are hardly any players who don’t feature at some point on a matchday. We usually make five subs and everyone contributes.
‘Everyone is doing well. There is a nice culture at the club.’