Why Rangers new signing Vanja Dragojevic was snubbed by Serbia – and is Derek McInnes to blame?

Vanja Dragojevic’s Serbia snub explained as Rangers role under Derek McInnes comes into focus

Vanja Dragojevic has been left frustrated after failing to get onto the pitch for Serbia during the latest international break, with his limited role at Rangers potentially playing a part.

The 20-year-old midfielder joined Rangers from Partizan Belgrade during the summer in a deal worth more than £4million, but his introduction to life at Ibrox has been far from straightforward.

Dragojevic has struggled to establish himself as a regular under Derek McInnes, with the Rangers boss preferring other options in the middle of the park.

Nicolas Raskin and Dan Neil have emerged as McInnes’ preferred midfield pairing, while Cammy Devlin is another player competing ahead of Dragojevic for a place.

As a result, the Serbian has made only seven appearances for Rangers so far, with just one of those coming in the Scottish Premiership.

That lack of regular first-team football has now coincided with a setback on the international stage.

Serbia were beaten 2-1 by Greece in their latest UEFA Nations League A fixture, but Dragojevic remained on the bench throughout the match.

Is McInnes responsible for Dragojevic’s Serbia setback?

It would be easy to point towards Dragojevic’s lack of opportunities at Rangers when assessing why he was not used by Serbia boss Veljko Paunovic.

After all, regular club football is normally important when players are competing for international places.

However, there is another side to the argument.

Dragojevic has only made two previous appearances for Serbia, and both came in friendly matches against Mexico and Cape Verde. Those games were played before the World Cup, which Serbia ultimately failed to qualify for.

That means the Rangers midfielder is still relatively inexperienced at senior international level, giving Paunovic another reason to leave him out against Greece.

McInnes can also point to Dragojevic’s performances when he has been given an opportunity at Rangers.

Does Dragojevic deserve his Serbia omission?

The midfielder may have hoped to feature after showing signs of improvement, but his performances for Rangers have not yet been strong enough to force his way into the starting XI.

His displays against Jablonec in the UEFA Conference League have been particularly difficult to overlook.

According to FotMob’s data from those matches, Dragojevic completed 68.2 per cent of his passes, while only 33.3 per cent of his long balls found their target.

He also won just 28.6 per cent of his duels and averaged 0.70 tackles in those games.

Those numbers help explain why McInnes has continued to favour other midfield options.

Dragojevic’s Serbia omission is therefore not necessarily something that can be placed entirely at McInnes’ door. His limited Rangers involvement has not helped, but the midfielder still has plenty to prove at club level.

For now, the clearest route back into Paunovic’s plans is likely to be establishing himself as a regular at Ibrox and producing the performances that make another Serbia call-up difficult to ignore.