Rangers manager Steven Gerrard believes that winger Ryan Kent has shown an improvement on his 2018/19 form this season at Ibrox and feels that the 23-year-old sometimes tries too hard.
The left winger was on loan at the ‘Gers last season from Liverpool before moving to Glasgow permanently in a £7m move (as per BBC) at the end of last summer’s transfer window, and Gerrard has been happy with what he has produced since then.
The Scottish Sun reported quotes from the ‘Gers boss saying: “Ryan Kent wants to continue to make these fans happy. At his age and the position he plays it’s almost natural at times that he tries too hard in certain situations. But he’s not the only one. Ryan’s doing just fine and his numbers are already better than last season.”
In the 2018/19 season, Kent scored six goals and provided 10 assists in 3,438 minutes of game-time across 43 appearances (0.14 goals and 0.23 assists per game), with a goal every 573 minutes and an assist every 343.8 minutes.
This term, he has already matched his six-goal tally from the previous campaign but has just three assists to his name. The winger has made 22 appearances (0.27 goals and 0.14 assists per game) and been on the pitch for 1,661 minutes, scoring once every 276.83 minutes and setting up a goal every 553.67 minutes. Kent’s creativity may have declined from last season but he is posting a far better goal ratio in terms of minutes played.
Aside from his goal involvements, the 23-year-old has improved in several other aspects of his game over the past few months. In 2018/19, he had match averages of 27.3 passes, 0.3 key passes, 0.3 crosses and 0.7 shots, with a passing success rate of 85.4%. His match averages for those respective metrics this term are 28.5 passes, 1.3 key passes, 0.5 crosses and 1.3 shots, while his passing accuracy has increased slightly to 86%. [via WhoScored]
Gerrard also pointed out that Kent “had one of the worst pre-seasons you could have” given that he only sealed his permanent move to Ibrox on 3rd September, having joined them on loan on July 22nd, 2018 and therefore being far more settled at the beginning of last season. Indeed, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp initially vetoed a possible loan move back to Rangers for Kent last July (as per Daily Express), which may have affected the player’s pre-season preparations due to possible uncertainty over his future.
Kent has already matched his goal tally from last season in less than half the number of minutes on the pitch and has also posted improved figures for several other metrics, despite only sealing a permanent switch to Ibrox at the end of the summer transfer window.
Therefore, Gerrard is quite justified in his belief that the ex-Liverpool man has improved from his first season at the club, with a run of five goals in nine league games either side of the winter break indicating the scoring threat that he can bring to Rangers’ line-up.
Rangers fans, do you agree with Gerrard’s insistence that Kent has improved from last season or do you feel he has regressed? Comment below with your views!
