By Sam Stone

21st Aug, 2022 | 8:37pm

View: Matt O'Riley will soon burst in goalscoring form for Celtic

Celtic midfielder Matt O’Riley has endured a relatively quiet start to the season on the goalscoring front but his underlying stats show the wait for a goal should soon be over.

O’Riley has been deployed as part of Ange Postecoglou’s three-man midfield and is a key creative cog for the Scottish Premiership champions.

Celtic have managed ten goals in their opening three Scottish Premiership matches, but O’Riley has so far only managed one assist for Postecoglu’s men.

However, Celtic fans shouldn’t worry about the former MK Dons man’s form, with the goals and assists likely to flow soon.

As per Wyscout, O’Riley has an average XG of 0.44 per 90 minutes, which basically means he is getting himself in positions and has chances to score at least a goal just over every two matches.

At present, he is severely underperforming what he should be achieving in terms of goals and this could be down to poor finishing.

If O’Riley can sort out his final action then there’s every chance he will go on to be a prolific goalscoring midfielder for Celtic this season.

It is very much the same story when it comes to assists for the Celtic midfielder, with O’Riley registering an expected assist of 0.45.

Much like his XG, the 21-year-old is underperforming in this metric having only mustered one assist in Celtic’s opening match against Aberdeen.

This underperformance could well be down to poof finishing from his teammates.

As the season progresses and players find form there is every chance that O’Riley will register the assists that his underlying numbers deserve.

The 21-year-old’s goalscoring and creativity are something for Celtic fans to watch out for in the coming weeks.

In other Football Wonderkids news, Mikel Arteta has provided an update on Bukayo Saka’s contract situation.