Nowhere near the levels of Abada and Jota- Commons call out Ibrox Show Pony

Kris Commons has called out Ryan Kent as pressure grows on Giovanni van Bronckhorst to ditch the Step Over King from his side.

The former Liverpool starlet posted another underwhelming performance at Anfield last week following on from his displays against Ajax and Napoli in the Champions League.

Despite four years of hype from the Scottish media there is virtually no interest n signing Kent who is well into the final years of his Ibrox contract.

While Jota and Liel Abada are pushing towards 20 goals and assists every season their Ibrox counterpart has managed just one goal in the SPFL this year with little sign that he is about to discover the route to goal.

Picking up on Commons’ piece in the Daily Mail, the Daily Record reports the former Celtic midfielder saying:

Kent has been poor all season and was finally dropped on Saturday. It was a fairly public kick up the backside. This has been a long time coming for a player with whom fans are growing frustrated. Kent is out of contract at the end of the season. At the moment, he’s not doing enough to justify a new deal.

The only thing that would make Rangers offer him one is the fact they don’t want to lose him on a free. He needs to buck up his ideas, so it’ll be interesting to see if Van Bronckhorst has been able to get a reaction from him if he’s back in the team for the Champions League game with Liverpool on Wednesday.

There’s a feeling that Kent can be a little bit of a show pony at times with all the fancy flicks and stepovers. But he’s not providing this Rangers team with anywhere near enough end product. If you look at the player who first arrived at Ibrox on loan in 2018, has he really improved or developed all that much? I’m not so sure he has.

There’s still a sense of immaturity and naivety in his game. I don’t see him as being anywhere near the same level as Jota or Abada. Kent does have talent. But he needs to show more intelligence in his play in the final third.

Jota and Abada know how to attack space and get goals, whereas Kent doesn’t do that. The gauntlet has been thrown down by Van Bronckhorst. It’ll be interesting to see what reaction Kent offers over these next few weeks.

Against St Mirren on Saturday Kent was on the bench but is likely to be recalled for Wednesday’s visit from Liverpool. It is believed that Leeds have cooled their interest and are unlikely to offer a pre-contract deal in January.