Why a Rangers return could kick-start Cedric Itten’s career after Furth frustration in Bundesliga

He was, though, not alone in that regard. His stats were symptomatic of Furth’s now seemingly futile attempt to avoid relegation but his frustrations can be sourced to tactical switches rather than a loss of form or change in mentality.

Stefan Leitl’s side have collected just six points from 18 Bundesliga fixtures and scored only 13 times in the process. Two came from Itten, but that was not enough to see him feature prominently in recent weeks as his German gaffer altered his blueprint in an attempt to change his fortunes for the better.

His recall to Ibrox has brought a premature end to his Furth career. It may prove to be a blessing in disguise as he now aims to catch the eye of Giovanni van Bronckhorst and play his part in the Premiership title defence.

“I think Cedric is a very good striker in the box,” Michael Fischer, sports editor of the Nürnberger Nachrichten newspaper, told Herald and Times Sport. “But he is not a player for a team who will play to their tactical limits. It wasn’t that easy for him.

“He scored his first goal against Bayern and he showed his strengths, which are getting across in the box and then scoring goals.

“Furth are the team with the fewest crosses in the Bundesliga so it is very hard for him to play in this team. He needs the crosses.

“There are teams in the Bundesliga that do this and if you look at Frankfurt or Cologne, for example, they do it.

“Furth is not doing this, they don’t have typical wingers that put in crosses so it was very hard for Cedric.”

In his third league appearance of the campaign, Itten scored in a 3-1 defeat to Bayern Munich. A few weeks later, a strike against Eintracht Frankfurt also ultimately proved in vain.

Furth have found the going tough in the Bundesliga. As the campaign has unfolded, it has become increasingly difficult for Itten to find his form.

“I think his biggest problem was that he didn’t fit into the coach’s system,” Kicker writer Frank Linkesch told Herald and Times Sport. “Cedric is a striker, as you will know, that needs to get balls in the box, who can score goals in the box.

“He didn’t get those balls playing for Furth. At the beginning of the season, the coach wanted to play like he did in the Second Division, play with a lot of ball possession, high attacks.

“He had to change the style because they lost a lot of games. That was the reason that he changed his style and played more defensively, with more counter-attacks. This style just didn’t fit with Cedric.”

The news that Itten was being brought back to Ibrox came as something of a surprise and time will tell just how prominently he can feature under Van Bronckhorst’s guidance this term.

Six goals in 40 appearances was not a prolific return in his first season with Rangers. In truth, the 25-year-old may find minutes just as hard to come by in the coming months.

“His playing time declined more and more,” Linkesch said. “At the beginning, he did a good job and scored goals against Bayern and Frankfurt but then the coach decided to use players with speed to fit into the counter-attack system.

“Cedric was striker number four in the end and I had a feeling that he might leave after the last two games.

“The last game before Christmas was a goalless draw with Augsburg and Furth needed to win this game. They needed to score goals and Cedric was left on the bench for 90 minutes.

“It was the same against Stuttgart last Saturday. Furth had few chances, no goals and once again Cedric was on the bench. I had a feeling that something might happen.”

The two goals that Itten did score in the Bundesliga will at least allow him to take some positives and some memories from a largely frustrating experience.

He was not the man to solve Furth’s chronic lack of firepower and that is an issue that Leitl – who signed Afimico Pululu from Basel last week – is still searching for answers to.

“In my opinion, it was a disappointing time for him in Furth, and also for the club,” Fischer said. “He scored two goals and, was one of the best players in that regard, but he scored two goals in 633 minutes, so one every 300 minutes or so.

“He didn’t really fit into the system that Furth were playing. In the last games, he was only sitting on the bench.

“If you look at his appearances this season, he played three or four days after coming to Furth.

“He played in a friendly game and scored and everyone thought he would be very good. He played against Wolfsburg and Hertha and the first game he didn’t play was against Bayer Leverkusen.

“At first look, it was the first game that he didn’t play, but it was also the first game that Furth played with a 4-3-3 formation and he didn’t fit into this formation.

“Furth wanted to play with courage and want to press the opponent very high. He didn’t have a place in the team.”

If Itten ultimately swaps a place on the Furth bench for a seat behind Van Bronckhorst in the Rangers dugout then he will surely be on the move once again come the summer.

He arrived from St Gallen with a pedigree in his homeland and for his nation. His time under a new Ibrox regime will determine if he can finally live up to that promise.

“The Bundesliga is a higher league than the Scottish Premiership, but in my opinion Glasgow Rangers are a better club than Furth,” Linkesch said. “I don’t know if the coach at Rangers trusts him and will let him play.

“I spoke to the coach of Furth, Stefan Leitl, on Wednesday and he told me he thinks the Rangers style fits more to Cedric than the Furth style.He needs a coach that trusts him, that lets him play.

“I think he has a good character, from what I have heard from his few months at Furth. He will like to chance to get playing again and to be able to play for Rangers again.”