Michael Stewart blasts ‘terrible’ Ben Davies live on BBC Sportsound after what Rangers defender did v Hearts
Michael Stewart blasted Ben Davies for dilly-dallying on the ball when in possession for Rangers in their Scottish Premiership clash against Hearts at Ibrox on Sunday.
Not long after Lawrence Shankland put the Edinburgh side 1-0 up in the fifth minute, 28-year-old Davies had the ball at his feet and was moving it forward into the away team’s half.
However, instead of releasing the ball, he ended up losing it and an attacking opportunity for the Gers died.
Stewart was full of praise of Cyriel Dessers’ movement and demanded that Davies should be playing with more urgency and using the wide-men to get the ball forward instead of doing it himself.
Speaking live on Sportsound on BBC Radio Scotland on Sunday (29 October, 3:18pm), Stewart said: “That’s terrible. That is terrible.
“We’ve been speaking about the need [for Rangers] to play it quickly to get in behind.”
Stewart said a couple of minutes later: “A couple of things.
“First of all, when Dessers does get behind, he’s doing exactly what we’re talking about, getting behind the defence and look where the ball is getting put in from, it’s in behind the Hearts defence. They’re all having to run facing the wrong goal so it changes the dynamic compeltely.
“But just before when Ben Davies was stepping forward, Rangers need to get the ball into the full-backs or the wide boys early. Ben Davies striding forward and taking 10 touches is not what’s going to be needed.”
Poor
It was a surprise to see Davies in the starting line-up ahead of John Souttar.
Philippe Clement presumably wanted to see what the former Liverpool defender could do in the Scottish Premiership after he helped the Light Blues win a clean sheet against Sparta Prague in the Europa League on Thursday.
But while he can, at the best of times, defend quite well. He can be lackadasical on the ball and that was evident occasionally against Hearts.
Stewart was right in his assessment.
Just walking the ball out of the defence down the middle of the pitch and into traffic is a ridiculous thing to do when you can spray the ball out wide to far more technically-gifted players.
James Tavernier is arguably the most attack-minded full-back in the world so why not move the ball onto him or find the young and energetic Ridvan Yilmaz on the left?
In other Rangers news, this Rangers TV pundit is in pole position to win a job on Clement’s backroom staff.