Ibrox View: Nathan Patterson is surely ready for bigger Rangers role next term
Rangers have a fantastic young talent on their hands in Nathan Patterson.
The teenager may only have one senior appearance to his name for the Gers, but there is a lot of excitement surrounding him, as pointed out before he’d even made his debut by Alan Hutton.
And with no other obvious cover for James Tavernier at right-back in Steven Gerrard’s current squad, the path to regular first team football has never looked clearer for the starlet.
But is he really ready to make the step up?
The stats would definitely suggest so.
According to Wyscout, over the course of his fledgling career, Patterson has averaged 6.53 dribbles per game, a cross accuracy of 35.9%, and a total action success rate of 65.4%.
Incredibly, all of those figures are higher than Tavernier’s career equivalents.
Defensively he’s sound too, contesting more defensive duels than the Ibrox skipper per game, and running him mightily close in terms of interceptions and clearances per 90 minutes – trailing him by less than 0.1 in each category.
And we saw plenty of his promise during his senior debut against Stranraer in January.
In that game, Patterson made six progressive runs and had four touches in the opposition box, as pictured below.
While he may have given the ball away twice in the opposition’s penalty area, the fact that he was there at all highlights the supreme self-confidence he has.
This is a youngster who is not at all fazed by the prospect of representing one of the biggest clubs in the world, and it’s that assurance that helps to make him such a precocious entity.
If you need any more proof, just look at how much of the ball he saw in the 2-0 win.
The visual above shows each of Patterson’s 80 successful passes, including two key passes.
To come into the side and dominate the ball like that is remarkable, really.
As a point of reference, the image above is of ex-Ibrox starlet Billy Gilmour’s pass map from Chelsea’s FA Cup clash against Liverpool this season.
The young Scot was making only his second start for the Blues and was widely accepted to have dominated the game.
Compared to Patterson, he made just 37 successful passes – and he was playing in the centre of midfield.
The point is that everything we have seen from Patterson so far would suggest that he is a player with huge levels of potential.
Hopefully Gerrard recognises that next season and gives him ample opportunity to prove himself.
In other Rangers news, Ibrox Exclusive: Former teammate Ivan Toney would be top signing for Gers, claims Alex Bruce.