Rangers boss Steven Gerrard has revealed that Nikola Katic's form is the reason new signing Filip Helander has been unable to break into the starting eleven.
Swede Helander joined the Ibrox outfit from Bologna for a reported £3.5m but the centre-half is yet to make an appearance in light blue.
Katic meanwhile has stormed to the forefront of Gerrard's thoughts every time he picks his lineup.
Rangers' Joe Aribo made wrong decision leaving Charlton, says ex-boss Chris Powell
That's why the Ibrox gaffer has kept Swedish international Helander out of the squad - because Croatian Katic, 22, has made the jersey his own.
Gerrard praised his defender, saying: "Nikola is a player we love and admire and want to help grow and develop and that is happening.
"I think he's moving along very quick and he's come back in a really positive frame of mind after a really strong tournament with Croatia under-21s.
"That's probably why we haven't been able to introduce Filip Helander at the moment.
"I say to these players 'do what you can to keep the shirt', and if you play well more often than not you keep the shirt."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel