Rangers look to have recruited well in January with Oscar Cortes, Mohamed Diomande and Fabio Silva all looking like useful additions.
Gers boss Philippe Clement was hoping to add more dynamic players to his squad and, so far, the Ibrox faithful have been happy with the new faces.
One man who isn’t so sure is Rangers legend Barry Ferguson who has given his early verdict on Fabio Silva via the Go Radio Football Show.
Do Rangers need more from Fabio Silva?
The 21-year old arrived with a stellar reputation but has yet to really fulfil his potential.
Two loan spells last season provided a hint of what he might be capable of and Nils Koppen obviously saw what he liked when he was at PSV Eindhoven.
Fergie, on the other hand, isn’t quite as sure:
“I want to see a bit more from him, there’s no doubt about that.
“His work rate is good, he’ll work hard for the team. But I’m expecting a bit more quality. Maybe that’ll come.”
The issue with Fabio Silva, if there is one, is that he is totally different to any strikers that we’ve had for a long time.
There are shades of Alfredo Morelos in that he likes to drop into the space between the forward line and midfield, he also pops up in the channels between the centre-halves and full-backs.
Ideally, Philippe Clement would love to see him line up alongside Abdallah Sima who loves to vacant the central space left by strikers.
With two goals and one assist in eight games so far, he’s averaging a goal contribution roughly every 130 minutes.
It’s fair to say that you would probably expect more from a player with a reported £35m transfer fee in his not-so-distant-past.
As Clement says though, he’s not bothered about where the goals are coming from.
For example, is it a coincidence that Todd Cantwell has started scoring more goals with a more mobile and technically proficient striker ahead of him?
Cyriel Dessers seems to be getting all of the chances, however, Silva is doing a lot of the donkey work when the games are tighter and there is less space.
Having a player who can beat a player 1v1, has intelligent movement and who can unlock defences is key, especially against the teams that sit in.
Ferguson is right though, there has been nothing wrong with his endeavour but Silva – given his reputation – needs to adapt and develop his game so that he does get into more goal scoring positions.
This isn’t a criticism but he will be some player if he does.
Should he score the goals that win the title, he will be more than welcome to
