Rangers star who outperformed his xG by 1.66 emerges as answer to Russell Martin’s woes after stunning display
Russell Martin needs to put his trust in Rangers summer signing Thelo Aasgaard after he shone during the international break with a fantastic showing for Norway.
Russell Martin’s ability to manage Rangers is currently being doubted by many after a shoddy start to life as boss, with the club out of the Champions League and sitting seventh in the Scottish Premiership.
His side recently suffered a damaging 6-0 loss to Club Brugge in the play-offs of Europe’s premier club competition, with many Rangers fans calling for the club to sack Martin after the game following a humiliating 9-1 aggregate defeat, but he has kept his job up to now.
Football Insider revealed on Tuesday (9 September) that Martin retains the backing of the Rangers owners for now, despite failing to win any of his first four league games in charge, but he needs to turn things around quickly for that to continue.
He will be looking for inspiration from some of his players during the international break, in the hope they can find some good form to return to Ibrox with, and Thelo Aasgaard‘s outstanding showing for Norway against Moldova will surely mean he is given a proper chance in his team this weekend against Hearts.
Thelo Aasgaard proves his quality with four-goal haul for Norway v Moldova
Aasgaard joined Rangers in the summer window for £3.5million [BBC] after spending just six months at Championship outfit Luton Town.
He suffered an injury in pre-season that meant his Gers debut was delayed until an appearances off the bench in a League Cup tie against Alloa last month, then he came on in the first-leg against Brugge before starts against the Belgian side, St Mirren and Celtic.
Aasgaard has not hugely impressed in his time with the Glasgow giants so far, and Martin may well have been tempted to drop him going forward, but his mind will surely have been made up on starting him consistently after the Norway playmaker netted four goals in one game for his country on Tuesday (9 September).
The 23-year-old came on off the bench with Norway already 6-0 to the good in their World Cup qualifying clash against Moldova, but he did not take it easy on his opponents as he netted an incredible four times in the final 22 minutes of the match.
Obviously the calibre of opponent was no match for him and his teammates, but Aasgaard showed some brilliantly instinctive play to notch that many goals, and his movement and vision was too much for Moldova to handle so late on.
Aasgaard ended his late cameo with four shots on target, highlighting his accuracy in front of goal, while he outperformed his 2.34 xG and completed seven of his 10 passes [Fotmob].
It is clear that he is a man in form as he heads back to Rangers this week, and Martin must now be looking to him to start every game going forward and potentially pull him out of the mire in terms of being sacked soon.
Some of Aasgaard’s Rangers teammates also shone on international duty
Martin needs as many players as possible that are in-form and firing if he is to avoid being relieved of his duties by picking up wins going forward.
Aasgaard shone for Norway on Tuesday, and he was joined in impressing for his national team by fellow summer signing Derek Cornelius, who scored a fantastic free-kick for Canada in their friendly against Wales.
Nico Raskin recently committed his future to Rangers by insisting that he is happy at the club, and he scored his first international goal for Belgium against Kazakhstan on Sunday (7 September), while the Gers centre-back John Souttar helped Scotland keep clean sheets against both Denmark and Belarus.
It is clear, then, that so many of Martin’s players can perform when they are given the freedom to do so by other managers, and it is now on him to help them transfer their form over to club level, because if the club continues to struggle, he will be out of a job very soon.