Ibrox View: Leverkusen cameo shows Jones might not be finished at Rangers just yet
Rangers manager Steven Gerrard has made it quite clear to Jordan Jones that he is free to leave Ibrox this summer, if you are to believe certain reports.
According to the Daily Record, the boss has told the winger that he can seek a fresh challenge elsewhere in the coming weeks.
But since that story broke at the end of last month, Gerrard’s actions have seemingly suggested that the speculation might not be entirely watertight.
The 25-year-old endured a pretty miserable debut season in Glasgow last term after suffering a ligament injury in an Old Firm back in September.
But this time around, he has been in and around the match day squad.
In fact, he was even given a 26 minute cameo against Bayer Leverkusen in midweek – and he didn’t do badly at all.
Compared to Brandon Barker, who he replaced in that match, he completed one more dribble, one more pass, and had one more shot than the ex-Manchester City man despite playing 37 minutes less, as per Wyscout.
And what we see if we look at his dribbling in particular is a player who is not afraid to get his head down and to test a full-back.
Above is his dribble map from that match, and you can see that he repeatedly gets himself into good, advanced positions where he can really hurt teams.
He’s pacy and direct too.
In this passage of play, for example, he gets the ball high and wide on the left, and immediately looks to stretch his legs.
One-on-one with a defender in an area like this, he knows he can do real damage.
His first touch his bold and heavy, and a lesser dribbler would be found out straight away.
But Jones backs himself, and shows enough cunning and speed to beat his full-back all ends up.
In the end, the desperate defender has to resort to hacking him down so that he doesn’t have a direct line into the penalty area.
And even though it’s not ideal, he ends up with a free kick in a very dangerous area to show for his efforts.
One cameo isn’t going to save his Rangers career, granted, but the fact that he is continually being thrown into the match day squad would seemingly suggest that he might not be done and dusted just yet.
If he can build on the fleeting moments of promise he showed against Leverkusen, he could still convince the manager that he’s worth a punt.
In other Rangers news, Darren Fletcher has backed this Gers talent for big season in 20/21 after impressive showing v Aberdeen.