Rangers boss Pedro Caixinha praises Declan John’s impact since joining on loan

PEDRO CAIXINHA has praised the impact of Declan John and believes he could have a big role to play for Rangers this season.

John joined the club on loan from Cardiff in the summer and has immediately slotted into the team at left-back, a position he is perhaps not accustomed to.

However, an injury to Lee Wallace left a vacancy at the back and John impressed on his debut against Partick Thistle before making the position his own with two goals against Hamilton last week.

Ibrox boss Caixinha has been delighted with how easily John has settled in, and expects things to only get better as he learns more about the position.

He told RangersTV: “Declan is a player that was never coached how to play as a left back, so he did it a couple of times with us and he did it very well, because we are a team that likes to attack and likes to have the full-backs go up and attack, so he can give us that.

“We will try to coach him a little bit more now, not only to defend the wide area but the relation with the winger in front of him, the midfielder on his side and also the centre-half from his side.

“He needs to know those relations and which space he needs to cover when he is defending, but he is also a player who can play as a winger.

“He can provide us with those sort of approaches on the game and even for example if in one special game, at any stage of the game, we need to play with three on the back, he can be the one that is full-back and winger at the same time.

“Declan is growing in that position, now we need to coach him how to defend in that position because, as you see, getting in attack and being involved by the overlaps or underlaps or getting on the box, crosses delivered and even scoring goals, he’s doing it.

“Now we need to work on the other parts to have a balanced player as well.”