Kris Boyd has slammed Rangers defender Ben Davies for his “poor” performance despite the massive 3-2 win over Real Betis, urging him to “do better”.
Philippe Clement’s side ran out 3-2 winners on Thursday (14 December) evening as they twice took the lead in the first half thanks to goals from Abdallah Sima and Cyriel Dessers, before Kemar Roofe found a late winner in the closing exchanges.
The three points mean that Rangers top their group and automatically qualify for the last 16, but the performance was far from perfect and Sky Sports pundit Boyd was quick to pick out Davies for his error in the first half.
Speaking on Sky Sports News (14 December, 20:38) he said: “It’s a goal for Real Betis and Ben Davies has got to do better. It’s just a long ball up, he tries to take it down on his chest and he takes a poor first touch and it drops to Isco, the last man you want it to go to.
“He then drives at the heart of Rangers’ defence, chops and changes, passes the ball to Ayoze Perez and he just finishes it into the far corner. Curls it way past Jack Butland, gives him absolutely no chance.”
While the result was excellent from a Rangers perspective, there were a number of performances that wouldn’t have filled either the Gers’ supporters or Philippe Clement with much confidence heading into the Viaplay Cup final with Aberdeen at Hampden.
Davies was one of those players to struggle against Betis and he was very fortunate that his big mistake in the first half didn’t prove to be too costly in the grand scheme of things. It’s hard to work out what he thought he was doing trying to chest down that ball and his touch was incredibly poor.
The 28-year-old won 50 per cent of his duels in the clash and did win the flick-on for Roofe’s late winner, but several shaky moments showed why he has been out of favour at Ibrox in recent weeks.
It feels unlikely that Clement will start the Englishman at Hampden Park on Sunday 17 December considering his performance against Real Betis. With Leon Balogun fit and available having been unable to feature in Spain, he must surely replace the former Liverpool man in the backline.
