Boyd Must Lead Attack Against VFB

Kris Boyd, a goal machine.

In European or Old Firm matches Kris Boyd usually takes a seat on the substitute bench but next Tuesday in the crunch Champions League encounter at home to VFB Stuttgart; I firmly believe Kris Boyd deserves his chance to bang Rangers in to a positive position ahead of Sevilla.

Over the years since Boyd joined Rangers in January 2006, Boyd hasn’t featured many times in European competition. He came on in the Last 16 2nd Leg away to Villarreal, were he missed a great chance late on which would have taken Rangers into the Last 8. However, it was a different story under Paul Le Guen, Kris Boyd featured regularly in Europe and played against Molde, Macabbi Haifa, Auxerre, Livorno, Partizan Belgrade & Hapoel Tel-Aviv. In Italy, against Livorno, were Rangers won 3-2 – he performed exceptionally well against a good side and scored one of the goals that night. In the knockout stages, he also scored against Hapoel Tel-Aviv in a 4-0 victory. After the Le Guen era finished, he didn’t feature in the Champions League or UEFA Cup runs of 2007, but came on as a late sub against Zenit in the UEFA Cup Final.

Stuttgart will provide tough opposition, however, winning is the priority – forget being cautious and not wanting to concede, we MUST have the mentality that if Stuttgart score one, we score two. Based on his last 4 or 5 performances, Boyd has done very well, his link-up play has improved alot, he seems alot sharper and has continued to keep scoring for the Scottish Champions. As I keep saying, we have to attack Stuttgart, guys like John Fleck, Steven Naismith and Steven Davis can provide the pace and pressing but when we have the ball, we want men in the box, the man who can finish is Kris Boyd.

His contract runs out at the end of the season. Lets hope a new deal can be agreed soon before other clubs come calling.