Rangers were neat in possession and dominated most of the play but didn’t really carve Hertha Berlin open with Todd Cantwell in particular not having much joy.
The 25-year old has seen his main competition for the number ten role depart in Sam Lammers but Gers boss Philippe Clement needs more from such a key position.
Yet to rediscover the form of last campaign, Rangers have work to do with Todd Cantwell to get him back to his best with Saturday’s derby proving exactly what the problem is.
Rangers need to solve problem with Todd Cantwell
Cantwell has been at Ibrox for a year now which is long enough to realise what his responsibilities are and what to expect most weeks.
Now that he is further forward, there is an element of his game that he has to change and that Clement should identify as being a problem.
On too many occasions, when Hertha were set in a defensive structure, Cantwell would drop behind the ball looking to get involved.
The problem here is that it then leaves a huge gap in the middle of the attack and our striker isolated.
What should happen is that the two central midfielders or full-backs take responsibility to build play and find Todd Cantwell’s feet higher up the park, between lines, so that he can influence our play and attack more.
Ryan Kent, who has been linked with a return, used to be bad for this too, he’d beat one or two players cutting in from the left-hand side but it would be on the half-way line after dropping deep to get involved with play.
When he made this sort of run higher up, he would cause problems.
Cantwell needs to trust his teammates and accept that he might not get as much of the ball or Clement has to tell him to be more disciplined in terms of his positional play.
There is simply no point, or need, for him to be taking the ball off the toes of teammates five yards away.
Todd Cantwell can be a match winner for Rangers but he won’t do it 50 yards away from goal.
