Celtic’s performance against Hibs was calm, assured and a helluva lot better than what the fans saw against St Johnstone a few days ago.
The 4-1 win allowed some of the fringe players to come in and show Brendan Rodgers exactly why they should be picked in future teams.
Hyoengyu Oh, Mikey Johnston and Tomoki Iwata all got the nod last night and all of them took their chance. It’s fair to say that Rodgers may well have a selection headache when it comes to picking the team to face Kilmarnock on Sunday at Rugby Park.
However, it was an ever-present in the Celtic team that blew Rodgers away. Matt O’Riley put in a sterling performance and chipped in with a goal in the win and the Celtic manager just couldn’t speak highly enough of the 23-year-old.
Rodgers said [Celtic TV], “Matt O’Riley was absolutely outstanding. Just so graceful getting around the pitch.
“His work rate but also his quality. His quality was superb this evening.”
Matt O’Riley was one of Celtic’s best players vs Hibs
The Danish international put in a sterling performance for Celtic last night. Rated an impressive 8.6 on Fotmob, as well as his goal, O’Riley also created two chances for his team.
With 66 touches of the ball, the 23-year-old had an unusually low passing accuracy of 67%. However, as an attacking force, O’Riley had 14 touches in Hibs’ penalty box, six passes into the final third and 100% success rate when dribbling against an opponent.
Defensively, O’Riley was superb. Winning eight of his duels, he also won 75% of his tackles, made six ball recoveries, five defensive actions and was only dribbled past once.
It really was a superb performance by O’Riley as he continues to show why he is so important to Brendan Rodgers’ side.
In other news, Brendan Rodgers explains why Cameron Carter-Vickers was substituted in Celtic’s win vs Hibs
