Nicolas Raskin would have been impressed watching his new team-mates from Tynecastle’s main stand the other night, and left in no uncertain terms of the level he will have to reach to secure a regular starting place in Michael Beale’s side.
For various reasons, the midfield hasn’t looked anywhere near dominant enough this season, however, a change of tactics, a less congested fixture list and persistent knocks gradually disappearing seem to have led to John Lundstram, Glen Kamara and Ryan Jack looking a lot more like their old selves of late.
Raskin will obviously have to earn his place in the side but he hasn’t been brought in to sit on the bench, or the stands, with the Gers gaffer giving an update as to when he might be available for selection, via The Rangers Review:
“Yeah, hopefully, that’ll come through. I know they’ve got a backlog so hopefully, a few nagging emails and they’ll push that to the front. Obviously after the transfer window, there’s quite a few players coming in but he’s an exciting one to have.
“We’ve got him forever, not just Saturday. I know there’ll be people desperate to watch him but a little bit like Todd, we’ve got to respect that we’ve already got a good team and they’ve got to come in and earn their way to play in it as well. That’s what should happen.”
Unlike Todd Cantwell against St Johnstone, I’d expect Raskin, if he is available, to come off the bench rather than start, especially with a cup tie against Partick Thistle on the horizon which would be a great opportunity to give him more minutes.
The issue in midfield this season is that players simply haven’t been reaching the levels that we all know that they are capable of and, if Lundstram and Kamara continue where they left off against Hearts, the others have a fight on their hands to get the starting jerseys off them – including Raskin.