Ibrox View: Brilliant assist from Rangers ace Kent should give plenty of hope for 20/21
Prior to Thursday evening, it was 127 days since Rangers last played a game of televised football.
That match was the Europa League defeat to Bayer Leverkusen back in March, and on paper, a friendly against Olympique Lyon in Lyon looked like a pretty difficult way to get back into the swing of things.
But we should never have been worried.
The Gers ran out 2-0 winners over the French side, and one man in particular caught the eye.
Ryan Kent is bound to dominate column inches tomorrow morning – for good reasons and for bad ones too.
The winger was dismissed in the second half for a slap on an opposing player – quite the rarity in a game billed as a friendly.
But prior to that, it was his ingenuity that created the first goal for the Gers.
Kent picks up the ball from a short corner, and is immediately closed down.
That limits his options in terms of whether or not he can deliver a cross, but the wide man is entirely unfazed by the challenge in front of him, and shows us the kind of pace and directness that we have been crying out for from him for some time.
The ex-Liverpool man had a dribble success rate of 54.5% this season, as per Wyscout, and to contextualise, James Tavernier had a success rate of 55.1%.
In this instance, however, Kent looks as if he could beat players for pace in his sleep.
Not only does he get past his man, but he also shows the physicality and strength to shrug him off and get to the byline.
Even at this point, however, Kent has a lot left to do.
There are players in the middle, granted, but there are also a lot of Lyon defenders too.
With a cross failed rate of 69.1% this term, it wouldn’t have been a surprise to see Kent fluff his lines.
Instead, he fires a ball into a lethal area just inside the six-yard box, knowing that Ianis Hagi is waiting.
The contact is messy, and the ball bobbles it’s way into the net – so much so that the goal was not given as the Romanian’s – but however it went in, the fact is that it all came from Ryan Kent’s creativity.
If he can produce this kind of quality on the regular next season, we might finally be getting the player we thought we were signing from Liverpool this time last year.
In other Rangers news, Ibrox View: Rangers could get 20/21 boost after transfer reports on rival striker