Rangers loanee flops as national media pile in on Thelo Aasgaard's Norway display vs Wales

Rangers loanee Thelo Aasgaard featured in Norway's 2-1 loss to Wales on Thursday.

The Bears made the controversial decision to send the attacker on loan to Anderlecht, despite scoring in the first game of the season.

Question marks hovered over the 24-year-old as soon as Derek McInnes arrived, with the former Hearts boss keen to use his preferred 4-4-2 formation.

Aasgaard is a natural attacking midfielder, and though McInnes accommodated this early on at Ibrox with a 4-2-3-1 system, he soon changed back to a 4-4-2 setup.

This allowed the Gers to send the Norway international to Anderlecht for the season, in hopes that both parties can benefit from the move.

Aasgaard is yet to do anything special since leaving Rangers on loan, and his performances have not been any better for Norway either.

Norwegian media pile in on Thelo Aasgaard after Wales display

Aasgaard played 24 minutes against Denmark in Norway's opening Nations League match, but was left on the bench in a 2-1 defeat to Portugal the following game.

He was given a chance off the bench once again in the defeat to Wales, this time for 45 minutes, but only harmed his case for a start.

The versatile forward made just six passes, created no chances, and had a 0 per cent shot accuracy.

Aasgaard lost both of his ground duels, also walking away from the match with a 0 per cent crossing accuracy.

NRK gave him a 5/10 rating, writing: "Took over for [Fredrik] Aursnes already after the first half. Struggled to make his mark on the game and did not submit a good application for more playing time."

Dagbladet were no kinder to him, handing the Rangers loanee a 4/10 rating.

Finally, Nettavisen also gave Aasgaard an underwhelming 5/10 score and wrote: "In from the start of the second half, only to see the conditions completely transformed when [Torbjorn] Heggem was sent off shortly after."

Has Rangers' decision on Aasgaard been vindicated?

Aasgaard looked a threat early on in the season for Rangers, but his inconsistency crept back into his performances.

While there is clear talent in the boots of the former Wigan Athletic star, McInnes' preferred system always meant that he was going to have a hard time finding his best role in Govan this season.

It was a good decision from the club's perspective to send Aasgaard out on loan; a player of his talent deserves to be getting minutes.

However, at the same time, he's only played three times for Anderlecht, and is yet to register a goal involvement.

The Belgium side have a reported £6million buy clause for Aasgaard, and he'll need to step his game up if the Gers are to bank a cash boost next summer.