When Celtic signed Matt O’Riley last week, there were plenty perhaps scratching their heads at the necessity of the deal.
Sure, it looked a decent catch on paper. A hot prospect wanted by a host of Championship clubs who has already had captaincy experience in League One? For £1.5m, you couldn’t really complain [Sky Sports].
However, it simply looked like added depth in an area of the pitch where we already felt stacked for players. David Turnbull, Callum McGregor, Yosuke Ideguchi, James McCarthy, and Ismaila Soro make up O’Riley’s midfield competition.
Yet what we didn’t take into consideration after O’Riley’s signing was the prospect that something may happen to our captain. CalMac looks like he could be set for surgery on his cheekbone, with Ange Postecoglou already describing his injury as “significant” [Daily Record]. It comes after a clash against Alloa in the Scottish Cup on Saturday.
In addition to that, David Turnbull is also still sidelined until the end of February at the earliest. All of a sudden our top 2 midfielders are out the game for substantial periods.
So turning to the reserve options, James McCarthy continues to be a concern. He looked slow and hesitant against Alloa as he lost the ball on several occasions. The sheer thought of playing him at Tynecastle will inject fear into the Celtic support.
Celtic needed Matt O’Riley urgently, and now we can see why
Soro is of course nowhere near the action either. His tactical indiscipline is something that will likely infuriate Postecoglou. So with all of these options either injured or simply not good enough for the fixtures ahead, it’s no wonder that Ange felt he needed to pursue one more midfielder.
O’Riley looks set for a heated debut at Tynecastle on Wednesday night. Ideguchi will be available after not being called up for the Japan squad. And O’Riley looks like his natural partner when you look at the available options.
Postecoglou has also shown no fear in the past when it comes to throwing new signings into the mix. There’s absolutely no reason for him to hold back on the former MK Dons man either. Especially given he’s match-fit and keen to make an instant impression.
His signing was a lot more important than we realised. The truth being that we didn’t expect anything to happen to McGregor nor did we expect McCarthy to be just as poor as he was at Alloa. You do wonder what the O’Riley signing means for him and Soro on a side-note.
It shows just how clever Ange has been here. He managed to notice a lack of quality in one area of the pitch even though we have plenty of bodies available to play in it. The truth is had we not signed O’Riley, we would be facing a major headache for Tynecastle this week.
But the midfield now picks itself, and you have to imagine Ideguchi and O’Riley will be given their first starts as a midfield pairing. It’s certainly something the Celtic supporters would love to see.
In other news, Celtic striker Giorgos Giakoumakis addresses October penalty miss vs Livingston
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