Why do so many Rangers fans still dislike this summer signing?

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Why do so many Rangers fans still dislike this summer signing?

Few could deny Carlos Pena has been an astonishing disappointment up till now. For the circa £3M Pedro Caixinha spent on the ex-Leon man, the return had been less than impressive.

Ibrox Noise has covered the tale with perplexed expressions more than once, and while the lad had scored a couple of actually decent goals, his contribution otherwise had been borderline dreadful.

The conspiracy theories ranged through the support from pure lack of physical fitness, to inability to acclimatise, to good old fashioned homesickness, and lastly his failure to grasp how to play in the SPL.

Up till last night, Pena had been an amazing flop, and it was with incredulity that team mate Alfredo Morelos described him as the best player at Ibrox. This drew laughter from some quarters, raised eyebrows from others and bewilderment from most – what was the Colombian seeing in training that us fans were not in the 90 minutes.

Now, before I go further, I must affirm last night was not a perfect display from the Mexican. He lost the ball a couple of times, and was guilty of being a tad sluggish now and then. But those quibbles aside this was leaps and bounds a staggering improvement in effort, ability, endeavour, enthusiasm, and sheer effectiveness.

Again, though, before I go further, this is the nub of the article – while we want to give this guy serious credit for the improvement in his game last night, we are a bit at a loss as to the criticism a significant chunk of the fanbase is still giving him.

Do not get me wrong; as I said before, it was not a flawless display, but we get absolutely slaughtered by readers and supporters for not praising or getting behind the team/manager/players, and now it is us doing it and you guys slaughtering the players?!

We felt Pena’s technical quality shone last night – his use of the ball was infinitely better than we have seen thus far, and more than once he passed with pinpoint perfection at a difficult angle. He worked far harder centrally, ran and harried, and while he did get a little caught now and then, we are a bit bemused that so many fans, who previously would give us pelters for being critical of him, are not impressed by him last night. Vice versa, anyone?

Bruno Alves and Graham Dorrans were outstanding, easily both’s best display since arriving. But we feel Pena was just about as good as them both – maybe not quite there, but almost – and the fans at the ground sure agreed with huge standing ovation when he went off.

Are we the only ones online who were impressed with him? In our view should he keep that up he will become undroppable, and we hope he does continue to produce that and better.

We are just puzzled so many fans were less impressed!

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9 COMMENTS

  1. Excellent display from Pena last night. He’s a very clever player with good technique and positional sense

    Plays the same role for Rangers that Scholes did for Man U.

    Two goals last night and he’s improving with every game. A real goal threat for us

    Overall good performance last night. Alves superb 👍

  2. I've probably been I.N. biggest critic due to what I deem as constant negativity towards our manager and players from this site.
    But kudos for this article, to come out and defend players when it is more fashionable to criticise deserves praise, so we'll done at last for defending the "Bigger picture.
    One or two results does not suggest we are the finished article nor does it suggest our manager is the new "Fergie but if this site along with others that support our club are beginning to understand that it is a massive rebuild and that we ARE going in the correct direction then I for one am delighted.
    Too many people of late are quick to kick our institution at the moment but the our lambasted gaffer defends our family with vigour and passion at every opportunity and he has only been part of our family for a few months.If a "Non" Rangers man can defend,promote and love our club is it too much to ask for "Rangers People" to follow his example?
    Well done I.N. and please!!!! keep it up 👏👏

  3. Agree with article. Pena still has a bit to improve, but he is certainly starting to show a glimpse of his 3 million price tag. Superb goals last night. What we need from Pena, and indeed all of our players, is consistency. It was a good result, but we need a good run of victories in the bag. But credit where due, Pena did well last night, long may it continue in future games.

  4. Everyone wants results now, the problem is it’s a new team that haven’t been able to comunicate, mostly cause they don’t all speak English. They will get better as the season gets on. Will prob take till xmas that they will all be on the same level, but looking good

  5. A 3-0 away win is definitely a great result, but I was astounded how many Rangers players were not winning the tackles in midfield. Holt is not a good passer of the ball, but has terrific energy, and Windass has speed but no stamina. IMO, you can't play Holt & Windass in the same midfield as they can't win enough tackles. I thought Dorrans was our best player and Pena took his goals like a top quality player – thank goodness, but it was nice to see. Well done Alves, I thought he had a smashing game. Young McCrorie started winning tackles when he came on and that's where the 3rd goal came from. Roll on the Motherwell cup tie – same again would be nice!

  6. Pena is at his best arriving late in the opposition box or at the far post as he did at Perth. A great threat going forward. And I think as a team we should be attacking more, more aggression and I would like to see the whole team believing in themselves. Confidence is a big influence on performance and I think we are beginning to see improvement in both.

  7. Pena scores most of his goals ghosting into the box – could be that his play is so bad outside of the box that the opposition defense forgets about him 🙂
    In all seriousness though while Pena is (very) slowly for the money we paid we need to see more – he should be dominating play from the middle of the park in this league – and we need hi,m to perform against the top teams Celtic and Aberdeen.
    Another game without a goal from Morelos. Interestingly he hasn't scored since Miller was dropped. Don't think he gets the same support from Pena that Kenny gives.

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