Bruno Alves is showing he certainly has much more about him than he showed at Rangers, if his Serie A performances are anything to go by.
The Portuguese Euro 2016 winner left Ibrox for Italy in the summer, and has since been thriving. Becoming part of Pedro Caixinha’s Rangers master-plan looked good on paper, but many others let Alves down whilst he failed to over-perform himself.
The Rangers fans only really saw the best from their Portuguese star towards the end of the season under Graeme Murty and Jimmy Nicholl. Making 25 appearances with Gers, Alves managed to keep just seven clean sheets whilst he was on the pitch.
Troubled by injury and a lack of pace in Scotland, nobody could argue about moving him on in the summer. Steven Gerrard ultimately allowed him to head out for Parma to make way for his own recruits.
So how has Alves been doing since that departure?
In truth, he’s flying in Italy with his new club. Already on 14 appearances for the season, he’s proving to be a commanding presence in the Italian outfit’s defence.
Bruno Alves’ Serie A experience
Alves has previous experience in Italy with Cagliari. Already, however, he’s managed to rack up four clean sheets at a club not expected to pull up any trees this term.
His latest outing came on Saturday in a bullish performance against AC Milan. Despite losing the match 2-1, Alves was dominant at the back and kept chances at a premium for AC.
So far this season, Alves has featured against the likes of AC, Juventus, and Inter Milan. Against Inter in particular, he marshaled the defence superbly to come away from the San Siro with 1-0 win. It was Alves’ most impressive performance to date, and he’s still in fine form heading into a big December schedule.
It would’ve been interesting to see how the Portuguese would’ve done at Ibrox this season under Gerrard. Rangers are in a much better place than they were previously, with not the same level of uncertainty about the club.
Alves tried to be a leader at the wrong time for Rangers, but is clearly still a top centre-back if his Serie A stats are anything to go by.
It’s by no means a missed opportunity for Rangers, however. The likes of Connor Goldson and Gareth McAuley look like a fine pairing. But could Alves have cut it in Glasgow this season? Most likely.
