Ryan Kent’s individual performance is often not helped by Rangers’ overdependence on him to open up a deep-lying defence almost singlehandedly.
Last night’s 1-0 win against Hearts offered the perfect proof. It took Kent beating three men before the hosts beat the visitors' block to open the scoring, after a first half in which he and his team hardly threatened Craig Gordon.
The winger seems to perennially frustrate supporters and there’s no disputing the fact that he hasn’t been in good form of late. And yet, it’s important to remember that the 25-year-old is playing for a team low in confidence whose main avenue to goal seems to often depend on Kent's individualism.
James Tavernier could be seen with his arm around a visibly frustrated Kent’s shoulder early in the game. Eventually, it was his moment of brilliance that gave Giovanni van Bronckhorst a vital three points.
“I talk a lot with him and in the second half he was much more of a threat,” the manager said after the game.
“We all know what he’s capable of. I said to him the quicker you go to goal the better for the team. It’s pleasing because he kept working hard and gave the energy to try and create chances.”
Van Bronckhorst also suggested that the hosts’ passing in the first half simply didn’t hurt Hearts enough: “When you have ball possession against a low block and go left to right but the speed is not there, it’s easy for them to defend”.
This, as has been the case so often this season, made Kent’s job all the more difficult given the pace of Rangers’ play was “easy for Hearts to defend”. By the time the ball reached him on the left, the defence had often shuttled over and was set to defend him two-vs-one.
Take this example. The Hearts defence is lopsided as the ball bounces back into midfield. By the time it reaches Kent, they’ve readjusted and the winger has two men to beat.
At times when he did go beyond defenders, his decision-making failed him. Here, as he attracts three men having cut inside you’d expect Kent to play into the box (outlined in red) rather than attempt to go around Cammy Devlin (outlined in white), who pinches possession.
When watching Kent, it is this indecision or desire to always beat another man that seems to let him down most regularly. When able to simplify his game and “go to the goal quicker”, the impact he makes is far superior.
The attention he attracts, like in the above example, can be used to his side’s advantage. He almost always attracts more than one marker which should theoretically free up space elsewhere on the pitch.
There’s an interesting parallel to draw here with another winger who is often criticised for the lack of goals and assists he produces, in the form of Man City’s Jack Grealish. Pep Guardiola often makes reference to the space Grealish creates for teammates, because of the way he holds the ball and attracts markers. Freeing up space for others.
“We didn’t sign Grealish for goals & assists”, the manager said last year. “It’s how he contributes without the ball and how he produces for others.”
“It’s his ability to attract many opponents,” Guardiola said on a separate occasion when asked to differentiate Grealish’s strengths when compared with other City teammates who score more goals.
It’s a skill some have coined ‘attacking gravity’. When a player sucks in multiple opponents, creating space elsewhere for others.
Kent is by no means a player of Grealish’s standard but there are parallels to be drawn here. After all, he has never developed a goalscoring knack in all his years at Ibrox and at 25, is no longer a young player.
The tools Rangers used to get past Union Saint-Gilloise earlier this season were less stylish than City's patterns but exploited the fact that in outnumbering Kent, the Belgians had left space open elsewhere from which all three goals originated in a 3-0 win.
Week in and week out, domestic opponents deploy similar tactics to nullify the Englishman.
Around the hour mark last night, Kent was able to expose this plan to good effect. Matching ability with decision-making.
After receiving at an angle from Borna Barisic, which allows him to front up the opponent rather than get possession with his back to goal, Nathaniel Atkinson sprints back to support Michael Smith.
Kent faints with his left leg and Smith adjusts to sprint down the line. Atkinson is still running backwards so can’t shift inside as quickly as his opponent.
The winger proceeds to sidestep Lawrence Shankland and chop away from Cammy Devlin. Notice Barisic is totally free because of the attention placed on his teammate.
Kent releases the ball at the right time for Barisic, with three men having gravitated towards him. The left-back cuts the ball expertly into the path of Malik Tillman to score in space. But how?
Great work from Kent 👏
— SPFL (@spfl) November 10, 2022
Precise cutback from Barisic 👌
Tillman makes no mistake 😎#cinchPrem | @RangersFC pic.twitter.com/lj8D6ffBea
Referencing the goal post-match van Bronckhorst said: “The cross from the left was perfect. We had all positions well taken in the 18-yard box.”
Look at how Rangers’ four attackers are positioned compared to Hearts’ four defenders. James Tavernier and Antonio Colak occupy the back four while Scott Arfield and Malik Tillman occupy the second line of attack and wait for the cutback.
Kent could’ve created another goal moments later when Arfield failed to properly connect with his front-post cross, he looked a vessel of confidence after his moment of magic in sharp contrast to the frustrated first-half figure.
That confidence was achieved because he was able to match gravitational pull with decision-making. Using the opponent’s plan against them.
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