[Albion] Matt O Riley [26/08/24 - sings on a 5-year deal]

[Han Solo]

Matt is a good player with some great edge qualities but unfortunately for him, pretty much everything has gone against him:
- Long term injury
- Georginio has reached a higher level quicker than anticipated
- Ayari has turned out to be a good PL player
- Diego Gomez was signed and has shown he will certainly be competitive
- Tactical changes (less number 10s per game)
- Solly is back

O'Riley was not a bad or incorrect signing. He has the qualities to play and do well in the Premier League, but in a team competing for European football I think maybe not.
Think it is unlikely that his spell with us will last past this season. Should be plenty of interest from less good PL clubs and we might go with that.

 

[Silverhatch]

Heard someone say tonight they are being careful with him this season due to the injury taking longer than expected to fully heal.

Is the right approach. He was lucky not to be crippled. When we’re in the CL and defending the FA Cup we’ll need all hands.

 

[HP Seagull]

The question probably is, does he go on loan next season to acclimatise to English football, or do we offload and try and recoup our money? Apart form Gomez looking good, we've got wonderkid Yalcouye coming back next season, as well as possibly Buonanotte with a season's PL experience in him, and Enciso(?). Oh....and Osman, maybe.
Still feel pretty much the same about Wieffer, TBH.

It was noticeable how much calmer and controlled we were for the final few minutes when Weiffer came on.

Long term I think he might be first choice with Baleba, although Gomez will have something to say about that if he continues last night’s form. I might depend on how we want to play, as it can’t always be that frantic.

 

[Zeberdi]

I think Weiffer is useful now and will definitely come good. Useful as a physical replacement for Baleba. Especially if we continue to utilise Jack all over the place.

It's MoR who's the odd one out who doesn't have the physicality to do what Baleba or Weiffer does or the passing levels of Ayari or Gomez.

Hopefully he'll figure out what he's for and can force it, but will have to be satisfied with waiting.

Agree. Weiffer just needs to build up minutes. When new players get injuries so early on in the season, it makes bedding in physically and mentally difficult (and that royal fc*k up by him and several other players when he came off the bench at Wolves didn’t help) but I still think he has oodles of potential to become an important player for us, especially if/when we lose Baleba in the summer.

O’Riley has still to convince me. I don’t think he’s got quite the physical attributes/stamina or aggressive hunger needed at this level although some of that might stem from his nasty ankle injury and like Weiffer just needs minutes. However, he’s testimony to the fact there’s a big jump between the SPL and the EPL - to me, he just doesn’t looked comfortable in his own skin out there - FH wants sprinting, intense football but I’m watching O’Riley thinking he runs like a girl with two flat feet. Maybe he’s impressing in training but I think we’ll either sell him on in the summer or give him a loan - there’s too many central attacking midfielders ahead of him.

 

[PlayMoran]

4-3-3 would suit him better. Both Gomez and him would benefit from that shape.

4-2-3-1 is working though, so that won't change.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

It was noticeable how much calmer and controlled we were for the final few minutes when Weiffer came on.

Long term I think he might be first choice with Baleba, although Gomez will have something to say about that if he continues last night’s form. I might depend on how we want to play, as it can’t always be that frantic.

A point of order, I see it as a squad game now, with the bench as important as the starters.
We brought on five yesterday, for tactical reasons primarily:

 

[A1X]

The way I'm choosing to look at O'Riley right now is that we're probably going to lose Baleba in the summer, so we've effectively signed an extra CM so they're ready to take over from him when he goes having had a year to embed themselves in the squad and familiarise themselves with the club, Wieffer the same but he's obviously adapted sooner.

I also think w can't underestimate the impact the injury had or the knock of confidence he would have taken from that.

 

[HP Seagull]

A point of order, I see it as a squad game now, with the bench as important as the starters.
We brought on five yesterday, for tactical reasons primarily:

View attachment 197340

Yes good point. I agree.

 

[dazzer6666]

A point of order, I see it as a squad game now, with the bench as important as the starters.
We brought on five yesterday, for tactical reasons primarily:

View attachment 197340

We were shitting ourselves a bit when Bart went down injured though as we'd already used the 5

 

[Biscuit Barrel]

I noticed the Matt O'Riley did not make the bench yesterday.

Not sure if he was injured or just a case of other players ahead of him.

 

[Deadly Danson]

I noticed the Matt O'Riley did not make the bench yesterday.

Not sure if he was injured or just a case of other players ahead of him.

Stomach bug according to Naylor.

 

[El Turi]

He had a stomach bug apparently.

 

[singing4seagulls]

The guy is clearly good.

Agree with other posters. Our all out run our competition off the park play means depth of squad vital.

Fab also changes tactics, which means some players will be better suited for different games.

As Silverware says: you then add in CL next season and fighting to retain our FA cup from this year and we'll need a very strong squad

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

The guy is clearly good.

Agree with other posters. Our all out run our competition off the park play means depth of squad vital.

Fab also changes tactics, which means some players will be better suited for different games.

As Silverware says: you then add in CL next season and fighting to retain our FA cup from this year and we'll need a very strong squad

Sorry, but based on what?

The Scottish leagueis nowhere near the quality of the PL.

So far he hasn’t been very good, although his progress has clearly been damaged by the injury, it feels like it’s way too early to say.

Based on what I’ve seen in the current squad he is the furthest away from a start out of all of our midfielders.

 

[Muhammad - I’m hard - Bruce Lee]

Sorry, but based on what?

The Scottish leagueis nowhere near the quality of the PL.

So far he hasn’t been very good, although his progress has clearly been damaged by the injury, it feels like it’s way too early to say.

Based on what I’ve seen in the current squad he is the furthest away from a start out of all of our midfielders.

A work colleague is a Celtic ST holder and we were discussing O'Riley when he signed for us.
He said he is quality and then I mentioned the standard of Scottish football.
To be fair to O'Riley, colleague went on to say he was bossing games in the champions league, not just in the MTL

 

[Machiavelli]

The way I'm choosing to look at O'Riley right now is that we're probably going to lose Baleba in the summer, so we've effectively signed an extra CM so they're ready to take over from him when he goes having had a year to embed themselves in the squad and familiarise themselves with the club, Wieffer the same but he's obviously adapted sooner.

I also think w can't underestimate the impact the injury had or the knock of confidence he would have taken from that.

I might be wrong on this, but I don't see FH using MOR in a CM two primarily and instead views him closer to a number 10 -- and a markedly different one to the ones that we've got.
I suspect we're more likely to lose Joao Pedro this summer, and that opens up a vacancy in that number 10 position. MOR would probably be vying with Rutter and Buonanotte for minutes in that slot.
We've now got an abundance of CM talents and, given we've got Yalcouye likely to be with us for next season, we've got enough cover even if we do lose Baleba.

 

[SweatyMexican]

I

Is the right approach. He was lucky not to be crippled. When we’re in the CL and defending the FA Cup we’ll need all hands.

Imagine lifting the FA Cup twice in two seasons oooooooohhhh

Okay I’ll stop dreaming now.

 

[DJ NOBO]

I like O’Riley a lot, admittedly more based on his Celtic and MK Dons form than with us.
It gets to the point though, that if another club pursues him hard enough and at least matches the price we paid, he could go. We shouldn’t sell at a loss though.

 

[DJ NOBO]

I might be wrong on this, but I don't see FH using MOR in a CM two primarily and instead views him closer to a number 10 -- and a markedly different one to the ones that we've got.
I suspect we're more likely to lose Joao Pedro this summer, and that opens up a vacancy in that number 10 position. MOR would probably be vying with Rutter and Buonanotte for minutes in that slot.
We've now got an abundance of CM talents and, given we've got Yalcouye likely to be with us for next season, we've got enough cover even if we do lose Baleba.

The only one who comes close is Gomes, and that’s on thin evidence at this moment in time . TBF that says more about how good Baleba is as a dynamic machine, than anything else.

 

[Change at Barnham]

I might be wrong on this, but I don't see FH using MOR in a CM two primarily and instead views him closer to a number 10 -- and a markedly different one to the ones that we've got.
I suspect we're more likely to lose Joao Pedro this summer, and that opens up a vacancy in that number 10 position. MOR would probably be vying with Rutter and Buonanotte for minutes in that slot.
We've now got an abundance of CM talents and, given we've got Yalcouye likely to be with us for next season, we've got enough cover even if we do lose Baleba.

Rutter, Buonanotte and also Gruda are vying for the number 10 spot.