Ibrox View: Rangers star cannot afford too many repeats of Motherwell no-show
Ryan Kent was far from his best during Rangers’ 1-1 draw with Motherwell on Sunday and the winger will be well aware that he cannot afford too many of those kinds of performances.
The former Liverpool man was largely ineffective as the Gers lacked any real goal threat for most of the game against Motherwell.
Out of all of Rangers’ outfield players, only Ianis Hagi and Leon Balogun recorded lower average match ratings.
When looking at all of Rangers’ outfield players, only Alfredo Morelos and the aforementioned Hagi touched the ball fewer times than Kent.
He failed to record a single key pass and only 50 per cent of his shots were on target.
A closer look at Kent’s heat map – courtesy of WhoScored – shows how ineffective the wide man was, as he simply failed to get into the penalty box or goalscoring opportunities on a consistent basis.
After a dazzling performance against Aberdeen last time out, it was a disappointing display from the Englishman.
It comes just days after it was confirmed by Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes that Rangers were looking to sign Scott Wright.
The Glasgow Times report that Gerrard could even send a number of fringe players to Pittordrie this month to speed up a potential deal to sign the wide man.
Wright will be the man to provide some serious competition to Kent – something that he does not have currently.
Brandon Barker came off the bench to replace Kent late on, but in reality, is never going to seriously push Kent for a starting berth.
It will not just be Wright that Kent will need to be wary of either, but Cedric Itten too.
The Swiss striker came off the bench to save the day for Rangers, scoring his fourth league goal of the season against Motherwell.
While he is unlikely to replace Kent in as an out-and-out winger, but his big impact at Fir Park could tempt Gerrard into changing systems and going with two strikers.
Consistency has been a real issue for Kent this season and Gerrard will be hoping that added competition out wide could finally bring the best out of the winger week in, week out.
In other Rangers news, Jordan Campbell names key player Rangers missed in 1-1 draw v Motherwell