There’s no hiding place here ... and Ryan knows that
McAllister is convinced there is more to come from £7m Kent but he must hit the ground running as Gerrard’s men bid to halt 10 in a row
LOSE yourself but don’t ever hide. That’s the considered message Gary McAllister has given to Ryan Kent ahead of the new season. As assistant to Steven Gerrard, McAllister has spent his extended summer mulling over the ways in which Rangers might bridge the gap to title holders Celtic.
Increasing Kent’s productivity is one obvious area for improvement.
A goal ratio of eight from 31 appearances was hardly paltry but, set alongside just four assists, it represented an underwhelming return from a player earmarked as the team’s chief creator.
After a promising year on loan, Rangers pushed the boat out to sign Kent permanently from Liverpool on the last day of the 2019 summer transfer window.
Stung by a 2-0 defeat to Celtic at Ibrox the day before, chairman Dave King agreed to a £7million outlay on the forward, who had long been Gerrard’s priority signing target.
His return excited the manager and energised the supporters, but too often his performances fell short of the game-changing standard expected of a marquee signing.
McAllister took encouragement from Kent’s willingness to take the ball but he has urged the player to forget about trying to justify his price tag, to block out the groans and simply immerse himself in his craft. He said: ‘Ryan Kent is most
definitely one of our big players and criticism is part of being a big player at a big club.
‘When results go the wrong way, you tend to look at the star player within the group and he’s one of our blue-chip players.
‘But I’ve known Ryan for a while and even though there were times I felt the criticism was a bit unfair, I didn’t see a player hiding. I saw a hard-working guy.
‘I remember way back when I played at Leeds United a coach advised us: Lose yourself in hard work.
‘That quote is flying around my head now and it’s something I’d say to Ryan. Lose yourself in hard work and you might just get the rub of the green, a ball might bounce nicely for you, and you might get a shot at goal and a deflection.
‘After that, Ryan can go and get a nice run of performances and scoring goals.
‘I know in the modern day a lot of people look at numbers — goals and assists — and that’s been thrown at him, but maybe he should blank that away.’
Just 40 minutes into the 23-year-old’s Ibrox return against Livingston, rotten luck descended. Forced off with a hamstring injury, it was another month before he resurfaced as a substitute in a 1-1 draw against Hearts.
From then, he was more or less a fixture in the team and a key man in the December run that saw the club go into the winter break breathing down Celtic’s necks.
Kent’s stunning left-foot strike was the definitive moment of a 2-1 win at Parkhead on December 29 but, in common with his team-mates, he failed to back it up after the restart.
Nominally a winger yet deployed in a narrower role to suit Rangers’ favoured formation, Kent has often seemed more comfortable on the European stage where opponents open up and give Rangers the opportunity to break at speed.
First-team coach Michael Beale has described Kent’s role as one of two ‘No10s’ with a freedom to roam and Rangers hope the permanent acquisition of Ianis Hagi can help take some of the load and expectation off his shoulders going forward.
‘We see a player who is pretty robust,’ continued McAllister. ‘He doesn’t miss much training, he’s generally there to be picked for every game.
‘He just needs to keep working away. There are little tactical things we want to impress upon him and there are little areas of the pitch he can improve in, and we’re just drip feeding these all the time. He’s a young man who loves the city and he’s come back looking sharp, so a wee run of form or goals and he’ll be fine.’
Before accepting Gerrard’s invitation to join him at Rangers two years ago, McAllister held an ambassadorial role at Liverpool.
Kent’s proficiency with a football caught his eye early but it took a little longer to get to know the introverted person.
Gerrard has previously spoken warmly of Kent’s quietly unique personality and McAllister senses the Londoner is starting to emerge from his shell.
Now, as a consequence, he believes his performances will also improve as his personality emerges.
‘I’ve known Ryan a while, he is a bit left-field and different,’ said McAllister. ‘It’s good when you get to know someone over a period of time and see them maturing. ‘Attempt a conversation with Ryan three or four years ago and it would have been one-word answers coming back. He’s a naturally quiet young man but I can start to see him come out himself a bit. And that’s refreshing. ‘He’s a player who can learn from being able to communicate better. He’s more settled now and you’re seeing a player who has loads of potential and can still improve, but who has become a man.
‘And as he becomes mature, you will see more mature performances.’
While the presence of Hagi may take some of the focus off Kent, McAllister would also like to see some of the club’s fringe players put more pressure on the starting XI.
A year ago, Gerrard made a point of recruiting several new players to beef up his attacking arsenal but too few made an impact.
Joe Aribo was a qualified success following his arrival from Charlton but Jordan Jones, Greg Stewart and Brandon Barker barely made an impact.
‘It’s pretty simple’, said McAllister. ‘They should all be looking at the guy who has the shirt they are going after and saying to themselves: “I need to get better at what you do”.’
Although Rangers went into the winter break just two points adrift having played a game fewer, the
He’s young, he loves the city and he’s come back looking really sharp
weeks from January to mid-March when coronavirus forced the cessation of football saw Gerrard’s team fall away dramatically.
At the point of shutdown they still retained that game in hand but sat 13 behind with a significantly inferior goal difference.
Kent’s struggles and Alfredo Morelos’s troubles off the field and in front of goal were significant factors. Gerrard has already made the point that losing at home to Hamilton is simply unacceptable.
Yet Rangers cannot also ignore the sustained excellence across the city, particularly at either end of the pitch where goalkeeper Fraser Forster and Scottish Football Writers’ Association Player of the Year Odsonne Edouard were on top form.
It’s only stating the obvious that the loss of either of those players would weaken Celtic. News that Forster is to return to parent club Southampton after talks over a permanent transfer collapsed surely encourages Rangers. An irresistible bid for Edouard would change the outlook significantly.
‘That’s not something that we are sitting here at Rangers hoping for,’ insisted McAllister. ‘We’re looking across the city but our main focus has got to be on ourselves.
‘Fraser Forster was outstanding, Edouard is a very good player but we’ve got to focus on and improve on what we do.
‘In the lockdown, we have had time to reflect and look back at these little games that went the wrong way. There’s room there for us to get better and then the season will go the distance.
‘We gained a points average of 2.4 to 2.45. We’ve got to get better than that. I am not a great man for stats but some of them have been quite interesting — goals scored for example.
‘We did pretty well across the board but there are places where we feel we can improve.
‘We have only been back in full-contact training for a few days but we can get better.’
The SPFL is expected to announce its fixtures tomorrow ahead of an August 1 kick-off and, at that point, the effort to become the first Rangers team to take the title in a decade will become real.
‘Everyone at this club has to embrace what is a massive challenge to stop a team from winning 10 leagues in a row but we’re up for the battle,’ added McAllister. ‘The players have come back pretty sharp and, in general, we’re pretty pleased with the shape of everyone as we prepare to see what the fixtures throw up.
‘Making a good start is imperative and we’ve got to come out the traps and start the season well, be very positive and then maintain it.
‘There’s been a lot of good — last season in particular there was some excellent stuff — but lockdown gave us a chance to reflect on the four or five results that caused the gap and we want to put that right.’