Matt O'Riley has heaped praise upon his captain Callum McGregor insisting that the Scotland international could easily mix it with Europe’s elite midfield talents.
The Celtic skipper was immense for his country over the international break in games against Cyprus and Spain at Hampden Park, and his lung-bursting 96th-minute run against the Spanish had the entire nation on their feet in astonishment.
McGregor’s performance was no surprise to O’Riley who witnesses the levels and drive of his captain on a daily basis in games and in training, and he believes he is up there with one of the best midfielders in world football.
Asked if the 29-year-old is as good as the likes of Luka Modric and Toni Kroos, O’Riley explained: “Yeah. If I am being completely honest I think Cal is at a similar level. Respectfully, if he was put into a team like Real Madrid I think he would fit in pretty easily.
“I have played with a lot of good players and Cal is definitely up with the best of them. He is a very important player and captain for the club and a genuinely nice guy on top of that. We are lucky to have him.
“I did my utmost to watch the Scotland vs Spain game! I couldn’t find it and then realised I didn’t have Viaplay so that was a bit annoying.
“I did follow it the whole way through and then I watched the highlights. It looked like Scotland did really, really well which was good to see.
“I saw that Cal was still bursting through players in the 90 minutes which kind of just sums him up. I was happy for him and I was happy for Scotland.”
O’Riley has covered for McGregor when the midfielder was out through injury in a deeper role and that has just reaffirmed to the young Dane the shift that his skipper has to put in on a weekly basis.
He continued: “I learned a lot playing and it was good for me as an individual to do so. You learn different things, things you can add to your game and I think I probably got slightly better there towards of my time playing there.
“It helped having Cal there to give me certain tips on it because, of course, he has played the position so much.
“I would say I am probably better defensively now than before I started playing as a 6 so that is a positive.”
O’Riley loves to see his teammates performing on the international stage and he hopes his performances for Celtic will help to edge his way into the Denmark national team set-up come the summer.
The 22-year-old was involved with England in the youth stages of his career, but he was eligible to play for Denmark through his mother’s side of the family.
After representing the Under-21s, he is now desperate for a full cap. Asked if he was keen to land a call-up for matches against Northern Ireland and Slovenia in June, he responded: “I am not thinking too much about that because I can only control what I do at Celtic. The rest takes care of itself.
“If I perform well here then hopefully I will get called up and get the chance to play. If not that is okay because I have a lot of time left in my career. I would like to do it sooner rather than later but when it arrives, it arrives.
“We lost to Kazakhstan 3-2 in the second of the games over the break which was a bit frustrating because when you are two up you want to see it through to the win but there are still a lot of games left in the group and we have enough quality to see us through.”
O’Riley has been in and out of Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic starting XI in recent weeks with competition for places at an all-time high.
The midfielder believes he is in a positive place mentally and he is enjoying the battle for game time amongst a fiercely competitive squad.
He said: “I feel good. I think the whole team is in a good place. There is a lot of competition throughout the squad and that is why the level is so high consistently.
“We definitely brought in good players who have added to the squad. You can see now that if we bring on a sub or subs at 60 minutes the level actually increases. Purely because our squad is that good.”
Asked if he has bought into the rotation plan, O’Riley continued: “Yeah, we have to. It is the best way to get success over the long term. There are hardly any players who don’t feature at some point on a match day. We usually make five subs and everyone contributes.
“Everyone is doing well. There is a nice culture at the club, we all get along and that definitely makes it easier. No-one is getting upset with each other or frustrated.”
Celtic take on Ross County in the Highlands today and ahead of the fixture, O’Riley added: “It is a long time since we played Ross County but I can remember the last time well. I gave away a penalty so it was not the most fun day in that sense.
“We managed to come back and get the win in the end, though, which is what matters.
“I think we know roughly what to expect from them this time. They are usually quite man focussed so it will probably be a tough game that way.
“You never know for sure what to expect but I would reckon they will try to stick to what worked last time because as much as they lost they got quite a lot of joy from it.
“At the same time we kind of know what to do if we come up against a low block and a team that tries to shut us down.
“We have played against a lot of different systems and formations this season and we always seem to find a solution. As long as we are prepared on our side we will be in a good place.”
