One of the criticisms aimed at Ryan Kent last season was that he didn’t score enough goals, a justifiable criticism seeing as he only managed three in the whole of the campaign – a number that was offset though by 19 assists, leaving him with a goal or an assist every two games in the league.
This season has started in a similar fashion and, despite missing some of pre-season and a couple of games through injury, the 25-year old has still produced three assists in three league games as well as a couple of important performances against PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League.
After, probably, his best display of the season against Ross County, Giovanni van Bronckhorst is happy with what he is seeing but that there is always room for improvement, as reported by Football Scotland:
“If you see his stats last year one of the things we wanted was him to keep assisting the players but also score goals. I think for him he always has the full-back behind him who’s coming a lot.
“Borna (Barisic) is always supporting. Being right footed your first intention is to go inside. It makes it really hard for defenders.
“He’s playing well, with the second Colak goal he started the move with the turn and pass to Colak.”
Kent is a typical winger in that he lives off confidence and, now that he is full fit, appears to be finding his best form at just the right time.
It’s a double edged sword with Kent in that he rarely attacks the six-yard box when the ball is on the opposite wing but because of this, he is usually in a good position to recycle possession and create more pressure, he doesn’t score enough easy goals at the back post, the sort that Raheem Sterling used to score for Manchester City.
With no goals so far this season, a couple at Parkhead this weekend wouldn’t be a bad way to get off the mark.