Rangers coach Michael Beale has claimed that we’re all about to see the best of Gareth McAuley.
The veteran centre-back was Rangers’ final transfer deal over the summer, as Steven Gerrard brought 15 players to Ibrox. McAuley is one of the few to have hardly made any impact at Ibrox this season so far.
Mystery has surrounded why he has yet to feature this season. McAuley, for all of his experience, has managed to find himself nowhere near first-team contention.
Beale, however, claims that this is down to injury and fitness issues more than anything. The defender wasn’t selected by Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill last month, but will hoped to be picked for his upcoming national team squad.
Whether this happens or not is doubtful. Beale, however, stated to the Belfast Telegraph that McAuley is closing in on playing a huge part this season.
“Gareth is doing very well. He came to us after being unattached so he was doing some fitness on his own. Everyone knows he is an outstanding professional and I’m really pleased we have Gareth on board.
“He had a slight injury from international duty so that put him back a few weeks, but now he has played a couple of reserve games and there is another one this weekend, and from there I expect Gareth to be someone who has a big impact in our team moving forward.”
Reserve action
The defensive partnership of Nikola Katic and McAuley did leak in two goals against Brentford. Regardless, it was just positive for Gerrard to see that one of his big-name signings is back in and around match action.
McAuley is clearly closing in on a first-team debut. This, therefore, you have to imagine is a big warning to Joe Worrall about his place in the starting line-up.
The Englishman has struggled to make a big impact since replacing Katic in the side. He’s struggling to improve on the ball, whilst his lackadaisical mistakes have threatened to cost Rangers in the past. There’s clearly a good defender in there, but Worrall needs to cut out the sloppy errors.
The partnership of McAuley and Connor Goldson sounds a lot more promising than Goldson and Worrall. McAuley racked up an incredible 227 appearances for West Brom in both the Premiership and Championship. He has plenty of positive experience behind him that should make him a star in Scotland.
Gerrard has shown that he isn’t afraid to just throw players in to tricky situations on their debuts. Worrall, for example, made his in the 2-2 draw at Villarreal.
Could we be about to see the same with McAuley? Taking Beale’s words into account, it wouldn’t be a surprise.
