'Real standout' How Coventry City starlet ruined Barry Ferguson's Rangers homecoming
Coventry City’s Kai Andrews played in the biggest game of his career at the weekend when he helped Motherwell to a superb 2-1 win at Rangers in the Scottish Premiership.
The 18-year-old midfielder – who joined the club on loan in January – looked “calm” and has been described as one of the “standout” players in Michael Wimmer’s side’s success in front of 50,000 fans at Ibrox.
Here we get the expert view of Ben Banks, sports reporter at the Motherwell Times, to see how the promising young Sky Blues teenager is doing north of the border, including his eye-catching display against Rangers.
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How’s his loan spell going generally?
“He couldn’t have come into Motherwell at a more turbulent time and he must have walked in and wondered what on earth he had done, but to be fair he’s done fairly well in the circumstances.
“He walked into a team that was pretty much on its knees in midfield. Their key midfielder Lennon Miller was out with a foot injury, Callum Slattery – one of the club’s better midfielders – was just coming back from a knee problem so it is an area of the pitch that has been totally ravaged by injuries from July until now.
“I think he came into the team for the game at Kilmarnock on an artificial pitch and minus five degrees on a Wednesday night in the middle of a run where the team were playing seven games in 28 days or something, which the Motherwell squad is just not equipped to deal with due to their injuries.
“He arrived on the Tuesday and played on the Wednesday and then Saturday at Hibs – which are two of the most difficult away venues you can go to in this country. So it was really difficult for him, put in at 18 for his first senior starts and expected to do a job, so not an enviable task.
“I thought he looked good against Kilmarnock but it was a bit more difficult against Hibs, who are on a 15-game unbeaten run at the minute, although the whole team struggled that day. At that point Motherwell had 11 senior players out injured and he was put in the middle of that against a lot of experienced players.
“So it was a tough start for him. There was the St Johnstone games in the cup and league as well straight after that, which were difficult and Motherwell lost those games back-to-back. The manager Stuart Kettlewell, who brought him in, was away quickly after that, so he couldn’t have come in at a more turbulent time.”
He added: “The first half of the season had been really good for Motherwell, they were in the top half and a cup semi-final so Coventry had probably looked at that first half of the season and Stuart Kettlewell’s record of developing EFL players who had come in on loan. They play a decent brand of football and he gave young talent opportunities.”
What position and role does he have in the team?
“He plays in a three man midfield here. The new manager, Michael Wimmer, has come in and he plays a totally different brand of football.
“Motherwell were probably the most passive team in the league under Kettlewell. The tactics got results but the average possession in games was 38 percent, I think, but the new man wants to play high intensity, aggressive pressing football. So it’s been a total culture change for him, and he’s played the last two games, against Dundee in midweek and then against Rangers at Ibrox on Saturday, and he’s been a real standout; really good.
“It’s helped that Miller and Slattery are back from injury, but Kai has been playing on the left central midfield slot in a very fluid diamond and he does quite a lot of the dirty work in there. He puts himself about physically, which is something that always impresses me with younger players.
“And to go from playing Under-21s football to playing at Ibrox and against proper men; you know Rangers were a last 16 Europa team for all their faults domestically and finished in the top eight of the Europa League which obviously Tottenham and Manchester United just about made their way into, and he was playing against players like Nico Raskin, Mohamed Diomande, Ianis Hagi on Saturday and he really put himself about with them.
“If you see the second goal that Motherwell scored on Saturday, it came from Lennon Miller and Kai Andrews just ganging up on right-back James Tavernier, having done well to hound Rangers into making silly passes, and then a combination of one and two touch movements allowed Tom Sparrow to score the goal, so I was really impressed with how composed he was on Saturday and the ability he showed in that environment.
“It was Barry Ferguson’s first game as Rangers manager, a club legend in front of 50,000 fans. It was Armed Forces Day as well so it was like a carnival atmosphere and a really lively occasion but he didn’t look bothered by it at all.
“He was really calm on the ball, put himself about against some really decent technical players, good physical players as well, and that midfield was a big reason why they won the game, and Kai Andrews played a big part in that.”
He added: “I would say he’s an all-round midfielder, suited to being up and down the park which is why I think the new manager likes him because he has got the legs to do that. He provides fresh legs in there and can get up and down the park for the duration of the game, and I think he played the full 90 on Saturday which says a lot, being trusted in that environment. They were 2-1 up away to Rangers and nine times out of ten the provincial club will fold and Rangers would go on to win 3-2, but he was trusted to play the full game and provide the energy to help see them over the line, and he did it comfortably.
“I think the best thing I can say for him is that he didn’t look fazed by it, wasn’t overawed by the occasions and that’s great testament to him. So considering his start, Coventry will be able to see that he can deal with that kind of adversity.”
What do the Motherwell fans think about him?
“The fans have taken to him. I think they felt for him when he first came in because it was such a difficult set of circumstances. He spoke to the press early on in his spell and he said he didn’t expect to get the minutes he had so quickly. So they obviously signed him for a reason and he had to go in straight away which can sometimes be to the detriment of a young player if they go in and have a bad experience, which can wobble them for the rest of the loan.
“But, to be fair to him, he has coped with a difficult start and he’s come through that and against Dundee last week where, again, Motherwell were going into that game trying to avoid a seventh successive defeat but when it started to get edgy he had the ability to put his foot on the ball and play forward.”
He added: “It has been clear from early on that he’s quite a cultured player and fans can see that he’s a good technical player and it’s just a case of putting him in the best circumstances to perform. And under the new manager it just looks a bit more fun to play in rather than pick teams off with two or three shots on target.
“So he’s been good so far but I still think he needs two or three more starts to really see where he’s at, but the first few that he’s made have been impressive and I have liked what I have seen.”
How does the new manager view him and what does the future hold?
“He has played pretty much every minute of Michael Wimmer’s second and third matches in charge, which I think says a lot about how the new manager views him. I think there’s still a bit of development if you’re talking, can he go into the Coventry first team next season. From a selfish point of view he would probably benefit from spending another season up here at a club like Motherwell.
“This level is really good for players from clubs like Coventry because they get a real mix of different teams from Celtic and Rangers who are like Premier League standard and then going to grounds like Easter Road (Hibs) and Hearts and Pittodrie (Aberdeen) which are Championship standard clubs, so there a real mix of mental and physical challenges which sets you up. He’d be 19/20 by then and it would set him up quite nicely to have a real go in the English Championship.”
