WHEN Rangers announced in January that a deal had been agreed to bring Dundee midfielder Glen Kamara to the club, a few eyebrows were raised among supporters of the club. With so many central midfielders already on the books at Ibrox, some Rangers fans were left wondering where the Finland international would fit into Steven Gerrard’s side.

The transfer was eventually pushed through on deadline day and Kamara moved to Glasgow for the princely sum of £50,000: a move that already looks like a fantastic piece of business from the club. The central midfielder has neatly slotted into Gerrard’s system without skipping a beat and has started the last four games for the club.

It’s been clear to anyone that’s seen Rangers in this time that Kamara is offering something a little different in the middle of the park than his team-mates have been doing, and that Gerrard’s side look a more well-rounded team with the Finn at the heart of midfield.

The reason that Kamara has been able to stand out so prominently in his new team is in no small part down to the fact that he is a lot more aggressive - and technically proficient -  on the ball than anyone else on the books at Ibrox.

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In his four games for the club so far, Kamara has averaged more passes than any other Rangers midfielder, and even has a higher accuracy rate than the likes of Ryan Jack. This is fairly impressive in and of itself, until you realise that Kamara is also playing far more difficult and incisive passes than his team-mates, too.

Kamara hits far more passes into the opposition final third than Jack, Scott Arfield or Lassana Coulibaly on average, and does so with an astounding rate of accuracy. 95% of the former Dundee player’s passes into the final third reach their intended target: a 25% increase on Arfield and Coulibaly’s output.

Ultimately, it’s this ability to look further up the pitch and pick out a team-mate that has made Kamara already undroppable at Rangers. While Jack does a solid job in recycling possession at the base of midfield and playing lateral passes, Kamara is able to split open defences with more aggressive balls forward. Indeed, no other Rangers player averages as many forward passes as Kamara and no one comes close to matching his accuracy in this regard.

Admittedly, four games isn’t the biggest sample size but the early indicators are in place that Kamara will be a big part of Gerrard’s plans going forward. Even when we look at Kamara’s overall stats for the season, including his time at Dens Park, the 23-year-old still stands out amongst his contemporaries.

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Celtic players dominate the list of the Premiership’s most accurate passers of the ball into the final third this season, but Kamara is more than holding his own here. Scott Brown is the league’s only midfielder with a greater accuracy rate when it comes to these types of passes, and he has some of the best forwards in Scotland to aim for. Kamara, on the other hand, was playing for a Dundee side that have been flirting with relegation all season. He was playing with lesser players, yet still finding them more regularly than Callum McGregor, for instance.

All in all, the decision to fast-track Kamara’s switch to Ibrox looks to be a very shrewd move on the part of Rangers and the midfielder has gotten off to a flying start in his new team. His ability to pick out a pass separates him from the rest of his new team-mates and the future looks very bright for the former Arsenal player. It’s still early days, but Kamara has so far given every indication that he will go on to become a very important player for Rangers in the near future.