Rangers put in their performance of the season, albeit against Kilmarnock team that hasn’t quite reached the heights of last term.
The forward line, rightly, got a lot of the plaudits after the 6-0 demolition with Ianis Hagi earning the praise of Philippe Clement.
The manager got his attacking team selection right at Ibrox, but it was Nicolas Raskin who provided the base for Rangers display.
Nicolas Raskin in all-action Rangers display
Given the man of the match awards by both the sponsors and RTV, the Belgian posted an all-action display at both ends of the park.
With a 91% pass success rate, two key passes, one assist and two successful dribbles, Raskin was dominant on the ball.
Without the ball, the 23-year old was equally as impressive; he won 4/4 aerial duels despite being the smallest player on the pitch, made three interceptions and won 3/5 ground duels.
Raskin’s 9/10 Rangers News player rating was fully justified.
Raskin not giving up on Rangers chances
It wasn’t that long ago that there were doubts about Raskin’s ability to fulfill his potential, now, he is Clement’s main man and one of the first names on the team sheet.
Speaking after the recent win over Hearts, Raskin also showed the mentality needed to lift his teammates out of the doldrums:
“No, we’re not feeling the pressure. We focus on ourselves. We’re taking it game after game,” Raskin said of Rangers slow start.
“We know what we have to do. We know we’ve lost points and we know we have to get them back. But the season is still long and we’re trying to take it game by game and do our best. It’s not done yet.”
As with players like Hagi and Vaclav Cerny, what Raskin needs to do now is turn in a similar sort of performance against Celtic in the Premier Sports Cup final.
Then, fans might believe him.
