A former Rangers full back, Alan Hutton, has been a surprise when he said he could bench club captain James Tavernier for the League Cup final against Celtic. While Tavernier has hit a rich scoring streak in his current campaign, Hutton believes that Maeda, Celtic’s fast left winger may just be too much to handle for the AC.
Hutton fears are based on the fact that Maeda has a good performance against Tavernier in the recent derby matches, in fact scoring in two previous clashes out of four. The former Rangers defender compared it with his experiences of coming up against clever wingers like Yannick Bolasie and Wilfried Zaha, when he was still with Aston Villa.
It came when you’re up against guys like that Hutton said during the Warm-Up show giving Kenyans his hilarious take on football. “You can feel it. As a full-back, in fact, you can get lost in a match because it is extremely hard to get out of your mind. I just have a vague sense that for whatever reason, through the season, Maeda has had the better of their encounters against Tavernier.
Even Neil Lennon, a Celtic manager in the past, agreed with Hutton estimating that Tavernier is unable to leave behind the thought of facing Maeda. But Lennon supposes that Rangers should still pick Tavernier since he is a genuine threat going forward in attack but should be protected against Maeda’s pace however.
There is rising expectation o Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst to make the right call before the League Cup final. With Tavernier arouses the problems in the defense against Maeda, the Dutchman has to consider whether to gamble on his captain or not in the decisive match.