Matt O’Riley credits Lennoxtown coach helping him improve at Celtic

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Celtic midfielder Matt O’Riley is having a fantastic season for the Bhoys and is eager to bring his confident form into a busy schedule for the club.

The Scottish champions play 11 matches in 38 days starting with Motherwell at home this weekend and if Brendan Rodgers’ ambitions are to be met, O’Riley will play a critical role.

The Danish international has been one of the standouts of the Scottish season so far, scoring six goals and assisting seven more across creative, impactful performances in domestic and European competition.

He’s been speaking about his improvement in a media conference today and shared that it has been helped, in part, by the presence of Gavin Strachan at Lennoxtown.

Matt O’Riley on his Celtic improvement

O’Riley said [Celtic FC]: “I feel good. I feel stronger physically and mentally which is progress.

“I try and look at it from the perspective that as long as I’m improving then I’m heading in the right direction. I feel I have improved in a lot of aspects which is positive.

“I work a lot with Gavin Strachan as well and we speak about things I can do better. The big thing that’s helped the most is being in the right frame of mind in my head.

“When you feel good in your mind it naturally translates onto the pitch and that’s something I try and draw attention to on a daily basis.”

Strachan, son of former Celtic manager Gordon, has received his fair share of criticism during his time in the club – notably during the ill-fated 2019/20 campaign.

However, it’s become clear over the years he is a popular and effective coach within Celtic. Ange Postecoglou made it clear he was valued while Rodgers recently described him as “excellent” in comments about his staff.

O’Riley is clearly responding well to his day-to-day work, also, helping him feel more comfortable and adding tweaks to his game to push his development on.

You get the sense the 23-year-old can get even better, too, which must be concerning for Celtic’s opposition.

In other news, Celtic Chief Financial Officer provides important new context on the club’s £72m bank balance.