John Souttar ‘bullied’ at Rangers – he’s told to ‘admit it’
Rangers centre-back John Souttar needs to ‘stand up and be counted’ after his mistake led to Kilmarnock’s winner in their 1-0 defeat on Sunday (October 20).
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, former Celtic and Scotland international Frank McAvennie believes that the 28-year-old ‘needs to learn’ from his mistake as Rangers prepare for their Europa League tie against FCSB on Thursday (October 24).
Kilmarnock striker Marley Watkins was able to beat Souttar to the ball, hold him off, and score the 87th-minute winner as Derek McInnes got the better of Philippe Clement.
With one win and one defeat from their opening two games, Rangers now sit in 17th in the new Europa League League phase.
John Souttar needs to step up at Rangers
The Scotland international has been decent if unremarkable for Rangers so far this season, winning 42 duels and having a pass accuracy rate of 92.4 per cent.
Souttar will no doubt remain a key player for Clement’s side but will need to put his mistake behind him as they seek a much-needed Europa League win against FCSB at Ibrox.
“If they play the way they played at the weekend, they’ll get beat”, McAvennie told Football Insider.
“It looked half-hearted, and Souttar has got to be strong, that was his ball but he got bullied.
“Souttar has got to stand up and be counted for now and admit that he got bullied.
“I keep saying to people, if you make a mistake, learn from it, if you don’t then you deserve to be left out of the team.
“If he learns from it then fine, he just didn’t know where he was, didn’t know how to handle it but he’s going to have to do it tomorrow because the Europeans are big boys and they don’t hold back.
“It’ll be an interesting game.”
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