James Tavernier was interviewed by RangersTV following Rangers’ 1-0 win away to Kilmarnock at the weekend and the right-back spent some time talking about his teammate Cedric Itten during the interview.
The Glasgow club signed Itten for £2.7m from Swiss side St. Gallen back in August and it may be fair to say that the 23-year-old centre forward has not made an immediate impact at Ibrox.
Itten has started just two of the Gers’ 13 Premiership games so far this season, while he came off the bench in seven other league games.
He has accumulated fewer league minutes than 17 other Rangers players thus far during the 2020/21 Premiership campaign.
One of his two league starts came in the Gers’ 1-0 win over Kilmarnock on Sunday and in his post-match interview, Gers captain Tavernier was full of praise for Itten and his performance, saying:
“Cedric did a brilliant job for us today. He’s been on the sidelines watching, he’s been seeing, obviously, Kemar [Roofe] get the headlines, Alfredo [Morelos] get the headlines and credit to himself – he’s a great professional.
“He’s been working really hard on the training pitch and he was asked to come into the team today and he did himself proud and did the team proud.”
Were you impressed by Itten's performance versus Kilmarnock?
YES
NO
TIF Thoughts on what Tavernier had to say about Itten’s performance versus Kilmarnock…
It may be fair to say that Itten was heavily involved in the attacking side of things for Steven Gerrard’s side in Sunday’s game, as he took the highest number of shots (four) and made the joint-second-highest number of key passes (two) of any Rangers player versus Kilmarnock, according to WhoScored.
With that in mind, it mightn’t be a surprise that Tavernier seems to have been pleased with Itten’s performance versus Kilmarnock and if the £3.6m-rated Switzerland international can deliver more performances like this one as the season progresses, then perhaps he will manage to earn himself a more regular place in the Glasgow club’s starting XI.