King rubbished 1/10 and 2/10 in Scottish papers after Rangers incident v USG
Leon King has been on the receiving end of some incredibly harsh player ratings after Rangers beat USG 2-1 in the Europa League on Thursday night.
Philippe Clement’s side managed to secure a vital three points that ensured an eighth-placed finish in the league phase and win qualification to the last-16 of the competition.
It means the Gers will play either Anderlecht, Twente, Fenerbahce or Bodo/Glimt in their next European game, which will take place on 6 March.
However, while the win was incredible news for the Light Blues, it came at a cost with King, 21, being forced off in the 14th minute with an injury, much to the despair of Ally McCoist.
It was the first time in eight months the youngster had started a game with Clement choosing to play the Scottish defender at right-back.
Within seconds of kick-off, King took a knock to the head after going up to win an aerial duel.
To be fair to the young lad, he bravely continued. Unfortunately, he struggled with his vision and eventually had to signal to the bench that he had to come off.
Scottish media trash King after Rangers injury
Despite trying well and making a crucial defensive challenge before he was replaced by Ross McCausland, the Daily Record and Scottish Sun have given him ridiculously low ratings for his time on the pitch.
The Scottish Sun awarded King 2/10 for his performance. All they do to justify that is talk about his injury and that he was subbed off early.
And in the Daily Record’s print edition on Friday (31 January, page 50), King has been given 1/10.
“In for first start of season but joy turned to despair after just 12 minutes as youngster trudged off having taken a blow to the head.”
Firstly, that’s a pretty weak analysis of King’s brief time on the pitch. Secondly, how can 1/10 be justified for someone who did as well as he did?
It was the defender’s first start in eight months and he looked absolutely devastated when he went off.
Good on him for trying his best to stay on and actually producing a solid 10-plus minutes of football.
What he doesn’t need is newspapers hitting out at him and giving him ratings you’d expect for someone who scores a hat-trick of own goals and gets sent off.
If you’re doing your ratings properly, you surely start at a midway point of 5/10 or 6/10 and go up and down from there, or just stick a N/A there. Don’t start at the disastrous depths of zero or one.
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