Craig Levein annoyed by Ryan Kent and Calvin Bassey in Rangers v Hearts
Craig Levein was annoyed by the wing-play between Ryan Kent and Calvin Bassey as Rangers won 5-0 over Hearts at Ibrox on Sunday.
Kent, 25, impressed throughout the Scottish Premiership clash, assisting three goals, but was criticised for passing the ball to Bassey, who returned to playing at left-back against Hearts, instead of getting a cross into the box.
Ex-Hearts boss Levein says it’s something that gets under his skin when wingers do that while he also criticised 22-year-old Bassey for squandering the attack.
“I tell you what, that annoys me sometimes about wingers,” said Levein on BBC Sportsound on Sunday [6 February, 04:30pm].
“Ryan Kent’s a fantastic crosser of the ball and he’s got an opportunity to put the ball in the box. But he actually plays it for Bassey and then Bassey messed the whole thing up.
“He had a chance to put the ball in early, he didn’t do it and Rangers missed an opportunity there.
“I’d have rather seen Kent take him on and throw the ball in the box.”
What was the score?
While it was only 1-0 when the ex-Hearts manager said this, Levein needs to be shown his quotes back and reminded that you shouldn’t speak too soon.
Kent finished the match with a hat-trick of assists as the ex-Liverpool winger really bounced back from his woeful showing against Celtic on Wednesday.
As for Bassey, yes, he struggled.
The 22-year-old was moved from his centre-back role to left-back with Borna Barisic being axed to the bench and Leon Balogun returning to the starting line-up.
It was the first time in a while that Bassey has had to start from left-back and he really didn’t play that well, both going forward and defending.
He was sloppy in possession and almost gifted Hearts a way back into the game just after half-time while we held just a one-goal lead.
Bassey’s got to improve but we still have more faith in him than Barisic.
As for Kent, we’re annoyed by the Englishman’s inconsistency and his inability to string together two or three performances like this.
Let’s hope that the loss to Celtic on Wednesday night was a turning point for Kent any many of his teammates.
In other Rangers news, Aston Villa’s John McGinn lost his mind over what happened with the Gers this week.