Charlie Nicholas unimpressed with two Rangers players, predicts Champions League outcome
Charlie Nicholas has been left impressed with Rangers duo Ryan Kent and Malik Tillman.
The Bears will face Napoli in their next Champions League game on Wednesday (14 September) and Nicholas feels that Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side are capable of getting a positive result.
Rangers lost their first game 4-0 in the Champions League group stage against Ajax, while Napoli won their match 4-1 against Liverpool.
“This Rangers team is not suddenly a bad team. They’ve been getting a kicking over the heavy defeats by Celtic and Ajax and I think some of the stick being aimed at Gio van Bronckhorst is way over the top,” wrote Nicholas for Scottish Daily Express (12 September).
“But I will say I wasn’t buying his excuses about the money. He was going on about the ‘hundred of millions’ gap but it’s just not accurate. Ajax may have spent £100m but they brought in about £200m so his argument is out the window. I’ve watched Napoli a couple of times in Serie A this season and while they have some impressive players I think there are areas where you can get at them.
“I think van Bronckhorst has to be clever – and he has shown that before in Europe. He needs to play this one as if it’s an away tie and he needs big performances. I don’t think Ryan Kent has been bringing enough – certainly nothing like what he did last season in Europe – and Malik Tillman, while bright in some of the early games, hasn’t turned up the last two big games.
“I think if Rangers play a bit deeper, protect and grow into the game I can see them getting something from it. So they might tweak it to a back three – or even at five at times. The postponement of the Aberdeen game has been a blessing for van Bronckhorst because apart from it being a tricky fixture, it allowed him to completely focus and get ready for this Napoli game.”
Spot on
Nicholas is absolutely spot on about Kent. The Gers winger has not been able to hit the form of previous years, and he is not delivering to the standard required.
Kent has a contract at the club until the end of the season, and there has been no inclination whether he would sign a new deal at Ibrox.
The former Liverpool winger is a quality player who is known for his dazzling skills, but he is not the type of player who scores a lot of goals or provides assists.
Tillman, who joined from Bayern Munich on loan, has impressed in the opening few games, but he looked average in the past two games, against Celtic and Ajax. He needs to raise his game as well.
Rangers are more than capable of getting a positive result at home. Last season, they reached the finals of the Europa League by beating some quality teams.
However, Van Bronckhorst is under tremendous pressure at the moment. Some of the key players are underperforming while he got his tactics wrong in two big games.
In other Rangers news, one key senior player at the club has been rinsed on social media after the recent embarrassments on the pitch.