Former Scotland international Jackie McNamara has labelled loanee defender Joe Worrall a “flop” and believes some players arrive in Scotland thinking it will be simple to play for Rangers.
Worrall played the full 90 minutes during the Gers’ 2-1 final-day defeat at Kilmarnock yesterday and will return to parent club Nottingham Forest this summer.
The defender featured 22 times in the Scottish Premiership last term but failed to make a serious impact.
McNamara believes that Worrall will have learned a lot from his experiences in Scotland and that many players underestimate how demanding Scottish football is.
“I think sometimes, you come into that environment of the Old Firm, there’s not a lot of room for error whereas down the road there’s that many good teams you can maybe get away with a few mistakes,” McNamara told Football Insider.
“There’s other clubs where it’s highlighted more, it can be very tough in terms of how they handle it as an Old Firm player. Worrall will have learned a lot anyway about Scottish football. They think it’s quite simple when they come up to Scotland but the pressure and the demands on them to win every game is very, very high compared to what they’re used to.”
Asked if he was a flop McNamara said, “It’s fair to call him that.”
OPINION
Worrall failed to make the impact that was needed at Ibrox. He looked defensively shaky and Gerrard didn’t seem to know which his two strongest central defenders were. Nikola Katic was frozen out at times and that led to a Goldson-Worrall partnership but he was responsible for mistakes in games where Rangers would have been expected to win. His error for the Gers at Kilmarnock back in January did not do him any favours – that would have knocked his confidence and at such a big club like Rangers you simply can’t make those mistakes. Worrall will return to Nottingham Forest and we’re not expecting to see him back in blue next season. Instead, Gerrard will look to bring another player in at the back and we think his first-choice partnership will be Katic and Goldson. McNamara is more than fair in his criticism of the player. The fans have been vocal this season and they’ve let Worrall know what they think. He needs to use that as motivation to succeed – the Championship is every bit as hard as the Premiership.