Rangers manager Steven Gerrard has criticised Joe Worrall for his mistake against Kilmarnock, believing it was a ‘gift’ that changed the entire complexion of the Scottish Premiership encounter.
The Gers were 1-0 up in the match at Rugby Park before Worrall was caught in possession and allowed Eamonn Brophy to score an equaliser. The home side would go on to win 2-1 thanks to a Jordan Jones effort.
It was the kind of defensive horror show that gives fans nightmares and the Ibrox boss was left fuming after the match.
As quoted by The Daily Record, he said:
We started the game extremely well, had control and everything looked really good and then we gift them a major gift and it completely changed the whole momentum of the game.
We’ve got experience in Gareth McAuley and Joe Worrall is an Under-21 international – I’ve got trust in them that they’re going to recover from the setback. But I think the whole team was affected by the mistake.
That moment has completely changed the game.
It’s incredible you can have so much control, and playing so well and with confidence and swagger and then to completely lose your way for such a long part of the game from that first mistake.
Worrall has so far failed to convince Rangers supporters he is worth getting a regular game at Ibrox, with inconsistency littering his loan spell from Nottingham Forest so far this season.
Last night’s encounter is hardly going to bolster his reputation and it could be time for Gerrard to think about dropping him and giving Nikola Katic another run in the team.
Worrall is not going to be at the club forever, so why we are investing time in developing him when he isn’t exactly the most inspiring of options to begin with is beyond me.
Hopefully the manager sees the light before long, or it could end up costing us more vital points in the title race.