A lot of Rangers fans who are also fans of Scotland have expressed some concern and ‘upset’ over Steve Clarke preferring the hapless Stephen O’Donnell over the SPL’s best RB in Nathan Patterson.
The curiosity is that bizarre loyalty the Scotland manager has to the inferior version, the one fans don’t rate, and who has let his side down many times before.
Sound familiar?
That’s right, for some reason, Nathan Patterson, despite being the best defensive prospect this country has had aside Kieran Tierney in years, is for some reason never preferred by either his club or country’s manager, who both elect instead to choose the one fans reject.
In Tavernier’s case this wasn’t a problem last season because of his form till January, but his untouchability since then before Patterson’s clear emergence as an outstanding talent has brought attention to it.
And it’s an issue which is clearly affecting this same player for both club and country, despite being evidently superior to the older versions he seeks to supplant.
How bizarre that a player of his quality is unable to get starts for either club or country because the respective manager stubbornly prefers an unpopular player in that position instead.
Ok, Tav isn’t unpopular, per se, he’s given a lot to this club, but his form this calendar year hasn’t been magical and yet he isn’t being contested because his manager won’t hear of it.
It is what it is, and Patterson just needs to bide his time.
If Stevie effectively admits publicly he’s worth well over £10M (which he did) there’s little excuse to leave that on the bench.
But Tav and SOD will play on, we think…
I’d agree that I don’t think Tav is in the form we have come to expect of him but when you actually look at the numbers he delivers in an attacking sense you see why Gerrard sticks by him. At this moment he averages more key passes per game than any player on the team and has the most assists in the squad. As much as he’s capable of a moment or two of defensive madness, Gerrard obviously feels it’s outweighed with what he brings the squad as a whole.
Patterson is a huge talent and a huge problem. We want to see him play and flourish but we shouldn’t be unfair to Tavernier. He was outstanding for most of last season and was easily one of our key 3 or 4 players. He hasn’t started this season well but what if he rediscovered that form from last season. Would he not be a first pick?
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