The big positive to take away from our defeat to Stoke City was Rowan Vine grabbing his second goal for the club.
You know, I don’t purr too often, but there is something about Vine that really excites me. It’s his body language; you can just tell he loves playing football and that he lives and breathes the game. It’s a quality that’s surprisingly missing from a lot of professional players in the modern game.
Vine’s impact since arriving on loan has been as productive as I can remember from any player we’ve brought to the club. He’s slotted in seamlessly and his impact on our attacking play has been immense.
I love how he is so hungry for the ball. He has the courage to always want it, even in tricky or tight situations. He doesn’t hide and he’s always calling and demanding the ball and looking for those quick one-twos and return balls.
He always looks somewhat surprised or confused when someone doesn’t pass to him or when they didn’t see the run he made or the quick one-two opportunity he saw. To be fair though, some of the players are not quite on his level of thinking, which is a shame.
It must drive him mad because it drives me potty. When someone like Rowan is wanting the ball, you give it to him! I’m certain he’d have scored a lot more goals now had some of the others shared his vision. It will come though.
He’s just so dangerous and exciting when he picks up the ball from deep and goes on those explosive runs that cause mayhem and panic and he’s also got that knack of making time for himself in tight situations. The latter has been the catalyst for the improvement in our approach play, especially on the counter attack.
The worry for a lot of people was whether he can score goals and I don’t doubt that he can. After the Sheffield Wednesday game though, I just felt like he needed a goal now to take him to that level. The rest of his play had certainly warranted it and I was worried the fans would begin to get restless about his return rate.
So, thankfully it came at Stoke, although I am secretly hoping he manages to grab one at Loftus Road before his loan deal comes to an end. He deserves a decisive goal there and I’m sure it will raise the roof and hopefully edge us closer to making him a real Ranger, because for God sake, sign him up, he has all the attributes to be one!
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