Rangers boss Steven Gerrard has predicted that there’s more to come from Ryan Kent, following his stunning brace against Hamilton, as quoted by the Scottish Herald.
The Gers winger was heavily involved throughout Sunday’s Scottish Premiership clash but at times in the first half, showed a lack of end product.
All that changed on the stroke of half-time, though, when after a couple of stepovers took him inside onto his left-foot, he sent a screamer of an effort into the far top corner from the right edge of the area.
It was one of, if not the best moment of quality produced by any Rangers player this season, and he put further gloss on what would turn out to be a match-winning contribution, by tucking away a tidy first-time finish in injury time. This time, with his right foot.
Yet, remarkably, Gerrard insists he’s still not yet fully up to speed.
“I thought he was terrific today for large parts of the game,” said Gerrard, as quoted by the Scottish Herald. “His first goal was an absolute world-class strike. In any game, if you score a goal like that on your so-called weak side, you deserve a lot of credit for it.”
“I know everyone will get excited about his two goals today, he will get the headlines and rightly so. But we still have to be patient with him because he is still searching for match fitness and sharpness, 100 per cent being at it. They are his own words.
“So once we get him a little bit more tuned in and sharper, you will see more moments and displays like today. That’s the exact reason we were desperate to get the deal done – he is an important player to us.”
Verdict
It should be a great cause for excitement for Bears that what we saw on Sunday wasn’t Ryan Kent at his sharpest.
He beat players with ease throughout, with only the width of the post denying him an incredible goal after ten minutes, too.
When he plays with intensity, opposition players in the Premiership simply can’t get near him.
His problem so far has been translating that into tangible goals and assists. After all, yesterday saw him notch just his seventh and eighth goals for the club.
If there’s still more to come in terms of performance level, though, defenders everywhere will simply be dreading the prospect of facing him.
