RANGERS' midfield woes have seen boss Walter Smith shunt £3million summer signing from Burnley Kyle Lafferty onto the left flank.

And while the Hammer accepts that Laff is being played out of position, he says that sometimes the wisdom of a coach in deploying players in alien roles is not always obvious.

Albertz said: "What you have to remember is that Walter Smith, Ally McCoist and Kenny McDowall are seeing the players on the training field every day and that is where their selections will be based on. So they will have their reasons for playing him there.

"I know it has been tough for Kyle Lafferty in that he is a striker and he has been played out wide mainly on the left and maybe he is not enjoying it.

"But at times we all have to play in positions that are not our natural ones.

"Back in my time at Rangers I remember Dick Advocaat moved me to play in the hole just off the two strikers instead of my natural left sided position and that was for a derby with Celtic at Parkhead.

"It was something I was pretty surprised about given it was unnatural for me and the switch was made ahead of such a big game.

"But I did all right and we won so you have to say that the coach has his reasons and you must have confidence in the manager for making these decisions even if it is not always obvious why he has done so."