Keep it up, Eoghan O’Connell. You’re doing everything right.
The Irish defender and cousin of rugby legend Paul O’Connell has been turning a lot of heads since being drafted into Celtic’s first team due to their mounting injury problems.
At every possible opportunity, Brendan Rodgers has been singing the Cork native’s praises, including his impressive European debut for the club against Astana last week. However, the 20-year-old proved that wasn’t just a one-off by putting in another great shift during Celtic’s 2-1 win in the return leg on Wednesday night, a performance which Rodgers spoke very highly of after the game.
“I thought he was outstanding. For a young player who has been at Oldham and Cork on loan, to be put into the games he has and to have shown that composure. He is a wonderful young footballer.”
“He dominates in the air so he wins his headers. But if you want to reach the highest level you possibly can then you have got to be able to dominate the ball and for him, for a kid, he passes it really well. As I said before, he has an in-built brain for the game.”
An impressive European debut for Eoghan O'Connell… https://t.co/WSJ7fcmM8P
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) July 27, 2016
Rodgers raved about O’Connell’s attitude on the training ground and how he has been able to bring that with him into competitive matches. The Hoops boss admitted he has been continually blown away by the maturity he has shown beyond his years and experience.
“I am looking at his temperament. It is the same in training – some players I don’t even know how many games they have played, but if they show that temperament and that composure he has done over the last couple of games, then he is only going to get better and better. Him and [Mikael] Lustig in there done very well and young Saidy Janko in the second-half was outstanding.”
“If you think in the game, we had a 20-year-old at right-back, a 19-year-old at left-back and a young kid at centre-half at 20 and young boys further up the team and a 20-year-old coming off the bench to score a penalty. At this level it is a very young team. They are gaining experience and with talent, you have to have time. You have to encourage and be supportive and if they make mistakes, they make mistakes. But if you trust them then you put them out there and hopefully you get the performance.”
While he was impressed with all the young talent on show against the Kazakhstan champions, he made a point of singling out O’Connell as the cream of the young crop.
“He [O’Connell] in particular was very good.”
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