O'Riley: We need to be more ruthless

Main Club Sponsor

TICKETS

SHOP

Denmark international reflects on 2-2 draw with Leicester.

Nick Szczepanik

2025-04-14T09:00+01:00

Matt O'Riley has made 15 Premier League appearances so far this campaign. 📷 by Paul Hazlewood.

Matt O’Riley believes that Albion have the quality to qualify for Europe but need to add consistency and a ruthless streak.

Albion have seen off Chelsea and Manchester City at the Amex this season. But the 2-2 draw at home to Leicester was the fifth occasion this season on which a team in the bottom six has prevented Albion from taking all three points from a home game.

The result, Matt said, was “very frustrating, lots of chances wasted, from myself included and then, yes, not ruthless enough in both boxes.

“It felt like we stopped playing a bit in the last half an hour, stopped showing for the ball, stopped playing with courage and maybe stopped counter-pressing like we were before.

“We just got quite passive in general, both on and off the ball. Regardless of who you play against you can’t afford to do that in this league. You get punished and I think they deserved to get a draw in the end.

“That’s the difference between [us and] the top, top teams. They’re just more ruthless and if I’m honest we’ve got a little bit to go to get to that level.

“We’re good enough to beat any team but we need to be able to do it consistently and do it against teams in the bottom half as well. Because when you compete at the top of the league you need to be able to be up for it every single game. Our problem has been consistency.

“Fair play to Leicester because they took their chances and they could have scored a couple more. We need to look at ourselves and definitely be better to have any chance of getting into Europe.”

Photo 1/25

Joao Pedro scored twice from the spot, but Albion were held at home by Leicester City.

Matt, though, was one of the main attacking threats against the Foxes, hitting the post late in the first half and going close on a number of other occasions to scoring his second goal for the club.

“Yes, I always try to get in the box, always try to time my runs well. I think the one I definitely should have scored was the header in the first half. The other ones were, not half-chances, a little bit more unlucky.”

Matt joined the club from Celtic in summer but Albion fans have only been able to glimpse his qualities in short spells. He suffered an ankle injury on his debut against Crawley Town but although he scored a memorable winner against City on his return, he has since missed more time with a knee issue.

“I’m still trying to get my rhythm,” he said. “I’m feeling better each game and I feel I’m able to show myself more in games and I hope I did that against Leicester. I would like to keep building on that so I can really help the team.”