Kris Boyd: is there a place for a predator on the pitch anymore?

According to soccerbase.com, Rangers and Scotland striker Kris Boyd is 24 years old. He has made 63 starts and 15 substitute appearances for the Gers, scoring 53 goals in total, at a rate of 0.68 goals a game. So in every 3 games he has played, he has scored 2 goals. However, he has not made a single appearance in any of Rangers' four Champions' League group games.

In a Scotland shirt, Boyd scored twice on his debut against Bulgaria. He currently has twelve caps, eight of those as a starter. He has scored 7 goals. However, he did not play in either match against France or the home game with Ukraine, and only came off the bench late on in Tblisi, Bari and Kiev. I would bet my shirt that he will only be a sub in Saturday's crunch game with Italy.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't a game of football won by the team that scores the most goals? And so why, in the big, difficult games where goals will be hardest to come by, is Boyd persona non grata?

Walter Smith, in the lead up to the clash with Barcelona at Ibrox, explained his view - Boyd can't play effectively without a partner, and in these sort of matches Rangers want to flood the midfield and play with only one forward - so far, it has been Daniel Cousin. Presumably Alex McLeish takes the same viewpoint, having gone with Kenny Miller in the last two games, and James McFadden playing in the hole.

Are they right?

There is certainly a widely held theory that Kris Boyd can't play up front on his own. It's said he doesn't press defenders enough, that he doesn't hold up the ball effectively, even that he isn't necessarily quick enough. In the case of the latter argument, Boyd may not be able to match Obafemi Martins over 100 metres, but his acceleration over the first 10m makes that pretty irrelevant - it's all he needs to get the jump on a centre-back. He certainly doesn't press defenders enough, but if you're a lone striker, how effective is doing that? If you're up top on your own against a flat back four who are even just a bit comfortable on the ball (as in the Champions' League, not the SPL!) they just pass it round you anyway. Running around for 75 minutes in the headless chicken, Kenny Miller style looks good and pleases the fans, but you end up having to substitute them because they're too knackered, and the likes of Cannavaro are hardly going to let the ball be nicked from them easily.

So, as far as I can see it, the problem is holding up the ball. And there I can see why Wallie and Eck don't have faith in Kris. It's because he's about as good at keeping the ball at his feet as Pakistan is at inroducing democracy.

In terms of stats, Boyd is the same height as Cousin. He also weighs the same. My personal opinion is that he's also as good in the air as the former Lens forward. But you can see that Cousin just has that little more guile about him, the ability to keep a cool head when there's a huge centre-half right up his a***, that one or two clever little shimmies and touches that enable possession to be kept until the midfield chug their way up the pitch to support him (and with Ferguson, Adam and McCulloch there, "chug" is the right word). Boyd just doesn't have that composure. That means he keeps trying to get rid of it quickly, meaning it either ends up going back to the other team or, even worse, to DaMarcus Beasley. (I'm going to get such a slagging for that bit, but he had an absolute 'mare at Camp Nou)

Then, after a couple of things don't go his way, Boyd sulks like an eight year old school girl. The pouting lip comes out and he doesn't even go looking for the ball anymore. I keep expecting to see him chewing his pigtails out of the corner of my eye. And that means that there's nobody to boot the ball up towards to relieve the pressure.

Of course, plenty of teams out there get away with having a striker who does nothing unless the ball is in the box. David Trezeguet. Pauleta. Hernan Crespo. Heck, the best example is probably Italy's very own Luca Toni. But there's an important difference between these guys and Boyd. They all play for top class sides who have a top class midfield, who can pass the ball out of defence and get players forward quickly. Therefore there's no need for the ball to be held up by a target man. Boyd doesn't quite have that luxury. But his deficiencies seem to be less to do with his ability and more to do with his attitude. He can, and must, improve this aspect of things to be an automatic pick, and to make himself the player he can be.

But the Kris Boyd of November 2007 will, at least initially, sit in the dugout on Saturday at Hampden. And Alex McLeish is probably correct in doing that. But when we get that one glorious opportunity on Saturday, the one the underdog always gets, when the ball flashes across the penalty area, about ten yards from goal with only the goalie to beat, which of Scotland's centre forwards would you rather have on the end of it?

L.