Pedro Caixinha has dumped Rangers’ other talented youngsters without reprieve so it will be interesting to see what the future holds for Ross McCrorie.
Pedro Caixinha received plenty of plaudits for giving Rangers’ highly-rated youngsters a chance in the first-team last season.
Handing out the odd debut is all well and good, but the real indication of a manager’s trust is whether he is willing to keep the faith when inevitable mistakes appear. So far, Caixinha is yet to pass that particular test.
18-year-old left-back Myles Beerman has barely been seen since being ripped apart by Patrick Roberts in April’s 5-1 Old Firm thrashing by Celtic at Ibrox. Caixinha threw Beerman into the deep end on only his fifth senior appearance without regard as to whether the young talent was really ready for such a challenge.
21-year-old centre-half David Bates, meanwhile, has not made a senior appearance since his part in the humiliating Europa League defeat to Luxembourg minnows Progres Niederkorn in July. All the, ahem, progress Bates made in the final few months of last season appear to have been forgotten.
Litmus test
Therefore, the returns of Bruno Alves and Danny Wilson from injury after the international break may be a test of how highly Caixinha rates young defender Ross McCrorie.
The Portuguese manager went as far as tipping McCrorie to be one of the best defenders in the history of both Rangers and Scotland even before his assured display against Celtic in the 2-0 home defeat last month, per the Scottish Sun. McCrorie has one up on Beerman already.
Yet, in the recent 4-1 thrashing of Hamilton, however, the 19-year-old made his first notable mistake in Rangers’ first-team, giving away a penalty for a naïve challenge on Botti Biabi. With Rangers already cruising to victory and Wes Foderingham saving the resulting spot-kick, however, McCrorie was spared criticism.
Though, if he keeps his place with Alves and Wilson returning, it will be the biggest indication yet that McCrorie is here to stay.
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