Rangers new signing Vanja Dragojevic snubbed by Serbia - is it Derek McInnes' fault?

Vanja Dragojevic will be livid with Derek McInnes after the latest scenes away from Rangers.

The Serbian was signed from Partizan Belgrade in a £4million plus deal earlier this summer.

The new signing has struggled to settle at Ibrox, though, and has been handed limited game time.

That has seen him fall out of favour with Serbia boss Veljko Paunovic, as he was not used in the latest international clash on Thursday.

His nation lost 2-1 to Greece in the UEFA Nations League A group, but the Gers ace was an unused substitute.

Ibrox News looks at why the 20-year-old may blame McInnes for the surprise snub.

Is Derek McInnes to blame for Vanja Dragojevic's Serbia omission?

McInnes has chosen to utilise Nicolas Raskin and Dan Neil as his primary midfield partnership.

Cammy Devlin is another option who is ahead of Dragojevic in the pecking order in Govan.

That has seen the Serbian make just seven appearances, with only one coming in the Scottish Premiership.

On the face of things, that looks like the reason for his national snub, and he will be unhappy with the former Hearts manager.

However, McInnes will point to the fact that he has only previously played twice for the Eagles.

Those appearances came in friendlies with Mexico and Cape Verde, before the World Cup, that his country did not qualify for.

He may not be happy, but there are indications that it is not McInnes' fault.

Is Dragojevic's Serbia snub deserved?

Dragojevic may have expected to feature against the Greeks, as he has been on an upward trajectory.

However, he has just not performed when handed an opportunity with the Auchenhowie side.

If we take the data from the UEFA Europa Conference League clashes with Jablonec, as they were the worst opponents, he did not show up in those matches.

Per FotMob data from that contest, he completed just 68.2 per cent of his passes, with 33.3 per cent of his long passes being successful.

The defensive midfielder won just 28.6 per cent of his duels, and made just 0.70 tackles against the Czech opposition.

Therefore, it is no surprise that he has struggled to get into McInnes' side on a regular basis, and he does not deserve to feature for the national team.

He needs to show better form at club level first, then perhaps Paunovic will decide to include him again.