Matt O’Riley’s interesting Celtic routine and the method behind it

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Celtic midfielder Matt O’Riley has opened up on his interesting set-piece routine at Parkhead and the method behind it.

An eagle-eyed supporter took to O’Riley’s Twitter Q&A today to ask him about something he’s spotted the Englishman doing before taking set-pieces. It involves O’Riley picking up a blade of grass and looking at it before putting the ball into the box.

And today, the Celtic midfielder explained why he does it as he provided a fascinating insight into the unusual routine:

O’Riley has impressed Celtic supporters since arriving in a £1.5m move from MK Dons in the January transfer window [Sky Sports].

However, in recent weeks he’s had to settle for coming off the bench as Ange Postecoglou has looked to mix things up. Both he and Jota have been taking Celtic’s set-pieces this side of 2022, and we’ve certainly been getting more goalmouth action from them.

And you have to say that O’Riley’s pre-set-piece methods are an intelligent touch too.

Matt O’Riley explains his set-piece method – the kind of touch Celtic fans will love

You can see just by the engagements on that tweet from Celtic how much fans love it. It’s the kind of clever thought process they like their players to partake in.

And you have to say it has its advantages too. Knowing how the wind affects the grass will allow the set-piece taker a more accurate understanding of where to put the ball and how much power he needs.

It’s good stuff, and shows the kind of intelligence you want in the squad. And fair play to the supporter who managed to spot it too. Learning things like this only helps Celtic fans increase their relationship with the players.

Granted, it’s fair to say that Matt has had to deal with a bit-part role with the likes of Tom Rogic and Reo Hatate getting more minutes under their belt. The truth is he deserves more than that when we get into the post-split fixtures in particular. His endeavour and creativity will be huge for us.

Yet you don’t ever get the impression that dropping to the bench is necessarily down to performance. Everyone seems to understand the role they have to play in the title run-in. That shows just how spot-on Ange’s man-management has been.

And make no mistake, O’Riley will have a big part to play in the coming weeks as the title intensity cranks right up again.

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