Master and Pupil

[Danny 9]

During the 9IAR period, Rangers were endowed with some truly world class players and one particularly notable individual was Ally McCoist, or ‘Super Ally’. Nowadays the assistant manager at Ibrox, McCoist was one of the greatest strikers in Scottish football history, and many fans, even those of an East End persuasion would actually accept him as probably the greatest Scottish striker of all time.

His goal haul was simply phenomenal, and he ended up the club’s all-time top goal-scorer.

Since his departure from the club in a playing capacity, McCoist’s position has struggled to be filled by an adequate replacement. Marco Negri hit the ground running but somehow fell out of favour with then manager Advocaat. Others have tried gamely such as Billy Dodds who was also in a rich vein of form before Advocaat dropped him as well, but no striker has successfully emulated the scoring prowess of McCoist. Certainly not over anything like the same period.

The latest pretender to the throne is Kris Boyd. Borne of pretty much the same school of striking as the master, Boyd is a raw goal machine and little else. His game is pretty exclusive to scoring goals, and he does not add a lot more besides.

Signed from Kilmarnock for less than £500,000, Boyd’s scoring record is actually very, very impressive. His tally last season was 36 in total between Killie and Rangers, and this season he tops the SPL by three clear goals despite former manager Paul Le Guen’s regular dropping of him. One shudders to think where he would be had he enjoyed a sustained run in the side. It is worth pointing out he has not had a single uninterrupted season with Rangers, signed a year ago as he was, yet his goals speak for themselves.

Furthermore, the fact he is second only to Celtic legend Henrik Larsson as the all-time SPL top-scorer gives some idea as to the potential of Boyd, especially given he is under 24.

When one scrutinises his career thus far, his age, and what he has actually achieved, the potential is genuinely frightening.

This is a player with all the goals of McCoist, with plenty to learn, and plenty scope to improve.

He is even finally starting to do it on the European stage with a fine striker’s goal against Hapoel.

Boyd is a distinctly grumpy looking player; one who never looks happy and whose idea of celebrating a goal is to look as angry as humanly possible, but you cannot argue with his truly outstanding goal tally thus far. He is also criticised for being lazy, for lacking the ability to hold the ball up, for not having much pace, and for failing to track back. Not to mention his less than inspirational dribbling.

But when your striker is finding the back of the net as often as Boyd does, does the fallibility of the rest of his game matter?

The job of a striker is to score goals, and Boyd does this to a tee.

Rangers are lucky to have him.

http://rangersmedia.blogspot.com/