The international break couldn’t come at α better time for Ryan Kent, α player lacking any sort of confidence and in desperate need of α goal or two.
This season, in 10 games, he has just three assists. Last year, when he was struggling in front of goal, he was still creating chances and finished the season with his highest number of assists, however, he looks α shadow of his 2020/21 form and the player that delivered double digits for goals and assists.
The issue is, if he still had 2-3 years left of his contract still to run then it would be worth persevering with him and trying to help him play himself into form, Kenny Miller’s opinion that he is every bit as good as Celtic’s wingers is true in that he is on ability, but currently, he is miles off it in terms of what he is actually producing.
It may be that he has indicated that he is going to sign α new contract, in which case continuing to pick him makes sense but, if he isn’t, we really need to start to consider other options.
Rabbi Matondo has been unlucky with injuries since he arrived and has only really been seen off the bench, he deserves α chance to play α consistent run of games and he deserves to play them in his favoured left-wing position. There is no reason why Kent can’t be dropped or moved to the other wing.
It’s almost like his injury-time “miss” in the Europa League final has affected his desire to get on the end of chances and constantly having two defenders to beat has worn him down to the extent that he invariably takes the easy option.
The international break has given us α chance to rest, hopefully, Ryan Kent comes out the other side like α new man because the current one isn’t that much use to us.