Celtic are limiting Matt O'Riley with new tactical instructions and it must change - Alan Morrison

Maybe a set of comprehensive early season wins raised expectations? Maybe the recent run of three matches without a win raised tensions?

There are many facets to any performance but let’s highlight one aspect that seemed to hinder Celtic… with one big caveat.

Matt O’Riley has been an undoubted success since joining from MK Dons in the 2022 winter transfer window. Last season, his overall attacking threat score of 8.93 per 90 minutes was only bettered by Jota (9.46). This adds up all the shots, assisting passes, box penetrations and other key attacking threat actions.

In other words, he was creative and he posed a goal threat.

Additionally, only David Turnbull of the attacking players had a higher pass packing score (52.58 per 90) than O’Riley (48.91).

This season, O’Riley’s attacking threat index is up to 10.51 but his pack passing score is only 37.15.

One driver of that is that his possessions in the box has gone up from 4.7 to 5.9 per 90.

One feature of the two Champions League matches has been that when Celtic are out of possession, they fall into a 4-4-2 shape with O’Riley joining Kyogo Furuhashi as the point of the press.

In possession, O’Riley’s starting position seems to be higher too.

Celtic seem to be trying to utilise his excellent pressing and counter-pressing abilities as high up the pitch as possible.

Here is one example from the match against Shakhtar Donetsk where he leads the press well ahead of Furuhashi:

Back to the Motherwell game, though. Is this higher positioning working?

By half-time on Saturday, O’Riley’s match data was more akin to a striker than a creative midfielder.

Celtic strikers under Ange Postecoglou are notoriously economical in terms of touches and involvements. By half-time in that match, O’Riley had 14 ball involvements and Furuhashi nine. The two lowest.

Watching the game back, it is noticeable that when Stephen Welsh has the ball, his only real options is the wide pass to Daizen Maeda.

Welsh was by far the most effective deep ball progressor on the day and had a pass packing score of 108 by half-time, 35 more than the next highest (Moritz Jenz with 73).

Last season, the Celtic signature pass was from Cameron Carter-Vickers to either Tom Rogic or O’Riley in the right-sided half-space 10 yards in from the touchline and between the defensive and midfield lines. Receiving the ball here allowed the receiver to run in diagonally towards the opposition goal looking for a through pass or even a shot.

Typically, O’Riley was about 10 yards further forward as a starting position. Here is but one example:

This further reduces the chance of creating quick passing triangles involving the over or under-lapping full-back, the winger inverting and the midfielder (O’Riley). These situations can create overloads for the opposition full-back and wide midfielder. The second Hatate goal in the February derby is a prime example of this working well.

A look at the Celtic passing network from StatsBomb shows that O’Riley was much higher than his team-mates and was broadly starved of possession.

As mentioned above, starving one of the most creative and dangerous players of possession could be mitigated if the pressing and counter-pressing pay-off is compelling.

Here are O’Riley’s numbers comparing the last two SPFL seasons:

While he is putting in more tackles (3.7 to 2.99) his pressure regains, pressures and interceptions are all down on last season.

This seems the worst of both worlds. Celtic are not being as effective in the press and are losing the creative inputs of one of their most talented players.

And all for the sake of about 10-15 yards of field position.

The hope is to move O’Riley back into the half-spaces where a ‘wide 10’ would operate and use him less as an auxiliary striker.

Yes, his run into the box and header created Furuhashi’s opener versus Motherwell but overall he, and therefore the team, seem to be diminished by this positional change.