Scottish Premiership outfit, Rangers are a team in transition under the tutelage of Pedro Caixinha. The former Al-Gharafa boss has been very busy this summer to beef up his arsenal by bringing quality names to the Ibrox Stadium in order to ensure that they challenge for the domestic silverwares in a better manner. However, after their shocking exit from the Europa League at the hands of Luxembourg minnows, Progres Niederkorn, things have started to fall in place for the Gers in the pre-season friendly games.
It would be absurd to say that pressure didn’t start to hover over Caixinha early on, but his troops responded to the situation in a befitting manner. In their warm-up game ahead of the Scottish Premiership season, the Light Blues drew against Ligue 1 giants Marseille and defeated Watford and Sheffield Wednesday. One of the players who particularly impressed against the Owls was midfielder Josh Windass, whose calm and composed goal gave a reminder to Caixinha of what he is still capable of offering to his employers.
Windass emerged through the youth ranks of Huddersfield Town and it was during his spell with the senior side of Accrington Stanley when he started to find prominence. Eventually, his eye-catching performances made Rangers sign him last summer, but the Englishman failed to carve a strong footing for himself and was serially overlooked. Despite a sluggish debut season, clubs like Queens Park Rangers and Rotherham United have lined up to make him sign on the dotted line, though the 23-year-old has some other plans.
Apparently, Windass is relishing the competition for a place in the starting line-up of the Teddy Bears and instead of choosing the easier resort of changing his ship, he is ready for the fight to prove his mettle to Caixinha.
It is quite an intriguing statement of intent from him, considering that there is a pool of talents with respect to Rangers’ midfield. The Portuguese manager didn’t pay much heed to Windass last season and was expected to strike him off his books, but his latest outing might tempt him to keep the midfielder in his arsenal.
An attacker who is quick and very athletic, Windass brings his physicality quite effectively into the game and creates many goal scoring opportunities for himself as well as for his teammates. He is a technical package and has the requisite technical edge to play at the highest level and his movements on and off the ball are quite appealing as well.
The factor of age is on his side and frankly speaking, he might be a surprise package of the Scottish Premiership in the upcoming season.
