Alex Rae reckons Ryan Kent and Alfredo Morelos' contract situations at Rangers could be a factor behind current form as he made reference to Ryan Christie and Odsonne Edouard during their time at Celtic.
The Light Blues duo are out of contract in the summer with fresh terms no closer. Giovanni van Bronckhorst faces losing the two men for nothing with the pair free to talk to clubs about pre-contracts come January 1 if they don't put pen to paper at Ibrox before then.
Both have been key stars over the years but Kent's struggled so far this season while Morelos has played mostly second fiddle to summer signing Antonio Colak. Rae has questioned whether the situations over their futures are having a bearing on performances of them individually and the team as a whole.
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He told Grosvenor Sport: "The players have to take more responsibility for their performances. It’s an interesting one with Ryan Kent because he's been performing at a very good level for a couple of years now and along with Alfredo Morelos, they’ve not really got them to where they want them to be.
"Kent is lacking confidence and Morelos hasn’t gotten up to speed with things yet and I’m not sure if their contract situations have had a bearing on that - we’ve definitely seen it before with players like Ryan Christie and Odsonne Édouard not performing at the tail end of their contracts which had an effect on Celtic."
Van Bronckhorst has come under increased pressure due to results and performances with Rangers dropping home points at Livingston last time out. That result leaves them trailing Celtic by four points at the top of the Premiership table.
They've suffered four defeats from four in the Champions League with the daunting task of facing a Napoli side flying both in Europe and domestically this season so far.
Rae added: "The one thing you can’t be doing is dropping points against, with the greatest of respect, teams like Livingston - especially at Ibrox.
"When they [Rangers] won the league title a couple of years ago they were very strong at home so this will be a concern for everyone at the club.
"When you play for a club like Rangers, pressure is very much part of the game and the players have to stand up to the pressure because that’s part and parcel of playing for the club as that’s the demands of the supporters.
"They’ll be feeling a sigh of relief after negotiating through the win against Dundee in the cup because they weren’t great on the night. Everyone at Rangers wants a bit more pace in their play because at the moment it’s very ponderous.
"Their performances have been flat lately and that will be a concern for Giovanni van Bronckhorst as they’ve got a tough run of fixtures coming up. They’ve got Napoli on Wednesday and they need to really perform well to get a result against them - they can’t afford another heavy defeat after that performance against Liverpool."
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