Scott Wright's quiet Rangers progress looks set to get much louder - Blair Newman

When things are going well, there’s no need to change the system, and things went incredibly well for Rangers last term.

Their 4-3-3 is ingrained. Partnerships have formed. Certain combinations appear almost telepathic. Having an identity this clear makes recruitment that little bit easier – there is a framework to work from.

Scott Wright, signed from Aberdeen in February, fits the framework.

The move had similar themes to the signing of Glen Kamara back in 2019. Like Kamara, Wright was playing well for another Premiership club and appeared a stylistic fit.

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His contract was expiring, so he arrived mid-season for a reduced fee with time to embed himself within the culture at Ibrox before making a proper go of the next full campaign.

Obviously, we don’t yet know if he will make the same impact as Kamara, but there have been some positive early signs that he can become an important member of Steven Gerrard’s squad.

“Scott is a player that I have admired and I believe that we can utilise his skill set within our system.”

Those were Gerrard’s words upon Wright’s arrival.

And after the friendly win over Real Madrid last weekend, that belief is increasingly mirrored by many Rangers fans. On several occasions Wright blitzed past his opponents, devastating them on the counter with speed and setting up good shooting opportunities for Fashion Sakala and Ryan Kent.

Wright almost certainly came to Rangers’ attention during the opening weeks of last season. Aberdeen had a depleted squad, so Derek McInnes changed his system to a 3-4-3. He came into the team, impressed, and kept his place. Playing as an inside forward in the front three, his movement and combination play was superb and helped to transform Aberdeen’s attacking game.

After scoring in a win over Hibs, Wright got injured and was missing from the starting line-up for eight games. He was back in the team by mid-January, but weeks later he was moving on. Gerrard and Rangers had all the information they needed. The 23-year-old was to become their next ‘project’, an under-the-radar signing made with a focus clearly on the long term.

The question is can he dislodge one of the ‘big heads’, as Gerrard describes them.

Alfredo Morelos and Kent are all but indispensable to the front three. Kemar Roofe isn’t far behind them. Then there’s Ianis Hagi and Joe Aribo, both creative types who can play either in the frontline or in midfield. Finally, there are the likes of Sakala and Cedric Itten, players who are still establishing themselves.

Eight into three doesn’t go. Wright will have to fight for his place. Fortunately for him, he has a lot of the raw material needed to play in the current Rangers setup.

Wright is an effective dribbler with a good turn of pace, but what separates him from the fringe squad members like Jordan Jones, Brandon Barker and Jake Hastie is that he’s also capable of finding pockets and making himself available. He may not have the two-way unpredictability and explosiveness of Kent to separate from a marker, but he constantly searches for ways to get on the ball and give his teammates an option. In the fluid, winger-less front three Rangers deploy, this quality is integral.

Effective at finding space between the lines, Wright can ‘come short’ and take the ball to feet. He also demonstrated an ability to ‘go long’ during his only Premiership start for Rangers thus far, away to St Johnstone in April. When Roofe withdrew into midfield and collected the ball just past the 20-minute mark, Wright was on his bike, running in behind the Saints defence. Combining his speed with good timing, he latched onto Roofe’s ball over the top to get one-on-one with the goalkeeper.

Kent is the natural benchmark for Wright – a winger who has evolved into a sensational inside forward – and these runs behind are also classic Kent moves.

Anyone who has watched Rangers over the last couple of years has lost count of the number of Connor Goldson pings Kent has run onto. This ability to go both ways, to come short or go long, ensures variety to keep defenders guessing, something Rangers need considering the number of defensive opponents they face in a typical league season.

This is where we get to areas where Wright must improve in order to get more starts in a Rangers shirt. The good news is that one weakness upon his arrival, his strength under pressure, is already showing marked signs of progress. This is no doubt underpinned by the strength and conditioning programme that saw him gain four kilos in weight, without a change in body fat percentage, in his first month at Ibrox.

That extra muscle should help him shield the ball from physical markers. But there remain other areas to work on, all of which centre around two words that are fundamental to any Rangers attacker: end product.

Injuries haven’t helped in the past. Wright was out for almost the entirety of 2019/20 after suffering cruciate ligament damage, while a hernia problem interrupted his good form last season. It’s difficult for a youngster to produce consistently when they’re enduring prolonged spells on the treatment table, but if we look at Wright’s two full seasons of first-team football, we can get an idea of his end product.

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In 2018/19 he scored three goals and set up four from 1494 minutes. In 2020/21, he scored three and set up one from 1390 minutes. When we combine goals and assists for these two seasons, he was directly involved in one goal roughly every three or four games.

To succeed at Rangers, Wright probably needs to bring that down to a goal involvement every two or three games. For context, Kent was directly involved in a goal every 174 minutes last season, and every 228 minutes the year before. That works out at roughly a goal or assist every two games.

In fairness to Wright, he hasn’t had much opportunity to prove himself. He has just one league start for Rangers under his belt, and he scored in it – a wonderful placed finish against St Johnstone. In order to become more prolific, he can focus on two things…

• Hitting the box to finish on crosses (you don’t need to be Cedric Itten to score in the air; just ask 5ft 10in Kemar Roofe).

• Developing greater shooting threat from outside the box.

If Wright can do either of these, he will no longer be reliant on running in on goal to score. And if he can clean up his decision-making regarding the last pass, he will get himself more assists. In a cameo against Celtic last season, he burned Scott Brown for pace before letting himself down with a poor pass that didn’t find Roofe. However, against Real Madrid there were signs of improvement in this department – whenever he got into dangerous areas, he was efficient in picking out a teammate.

With improved strength, finishing and final third decisions to go with his pace, dribbling and clever off-the-ball movement, Wright will be knocking down the door to Gerrard’s starting line-up. Of course, that doesn’t take into account tactical tweaks that could be made throughout this season.

For big domestic and European games, the manager may pack more pace into his frontline, as he did against Real Madrid at the weekend. A trio of Wright, Kent and Sakala could frighten even the quickest of defenders. High lines have been warned. Then there is the possibility of a change in formation.

Gerrard went for a 4-4-2 / 4-2-4 when giving Wright his first league start, against St Johnstone in April. Steven Davis and Kamara sat in, while Wright joined Hagi, Roofe and Itten in a front four that may have reminded supporters of the days when Walter Smith fielded teams including Kris Boyd, Kenny Miller, Nacho Novo and Kyle Lafferty. If Gerrard did adopt this formation, there would be one extra spot in the attack for Wright to target.

Rangers are about to do two things they haven’t done since the Smith era: try to defend their title, and attempt to reach the Champions League group stages. To succeed in both of these objectives, Gerrard will need to call upon all of his squad’s attacking might. Scott Wright’s progress so far has been quiet, but it could get a lot louder in 2021/22.