Sky Sports’ Joshua Barrie has claimed that Giovanni van Bronckhorst playing Ryan Kent as a wide left-midfielder is holding back the Rangers ace this season.
Kent has certainly been experiencing a less-than-fruitful campaign for Rangers, which more or less mirrors their season as a football club, with the winger managing just one SPFL goal and the Gers already sitting nine points behind the league leaders.
While Kent has been well short of the standards he’s set over the last few years at Ibrox, Barrie believes that Van Bronckhorst playing him out wide on the left has almost put the shackles on him, which is highlighted in his stats of just five shots on target from 25 efforts in that position.
Barrie has claimed that as long as Kent is shoved out wide by Van Bronckhorst, he will continue to struggle in front of goal.
Does Kent need to be dropped?
Yes!
No!
He wrote on Twitter: “On the flip side, what about his lack of goal threat? His shot map this season shows 25 efforts, only five of which have found the target. After a year, it’s safe to assume he won’t score many playing wide left.”
TIF Thoughts on Kent’s form…
It will be very alarming for Rangers fans and Van Bronckhorst to see how poorly Kent is performing this season compared to campaigns gone by, as he’s recently done so well in the SPFL, which would suggest there is indeed something holding him back.
Perhaps he needs a new manager to come in and loosen the shackles and allow him to express himself more on the pitch, which could well happen in the near future given the poor results Van Bronckhorst has picked up over the last few weeks and months.
However, Kent will have to take some responsibility as he is the one out there performing every week, and if something isn’t working, he should be taking matters into his own hands by trying different things to work out how to reach his past performance levels again.