Rangers great Mark Hateley sees a lot of his younger self in Ryan Naderi and is backing the striker to continue his upward trajectory.

The 23-year-old scored one goal in nine league appearances last season after joining from Germany's third tier in February.

The former Hansa Rostock forward has stepped up to the plate this season in the absence of Lawrence Shankland and Youssef Chermiti, scoring nine goals, five of which have come in his past six matches.

"He must be a joy to work with because he does all the hard stuff, all the hard running. He runs in behind and puts in the hard yards," said Hateley, who scored more than 100 goals for Rangers and won 11 domestic honours.

"When you have talent, that is probably the one thing that can be lacking - the willingness to work hard. He has that as a natural ability.

"He is that centre-forward, playing through the middle, basically causing chaos. I see a lot of that in me when I was a youngster. But then I had things added to my game, which can easily be done with a young boy.

"So I'm really, really pleased for him. You do the hard yards and you get the rewards.

"I came here when I was nearer the finished article. This is a starting block for him, coming from third-division German football to here."

Hateley revealed he gave the Czech Republic striker some advice after seeing him struggle to make a major impact during the first few months of his Ibrox career.

"I had a quick chat with him when he was injured, on a matchday," he added. "A quick, quick chat with him about what we wanted and how we wanted to get there.

"I won't tell you what I said to him, but we seem to have hit the right straps. He's doing remarkably well and scoring a lot of goals.

"If he wants to become the player he wants to be, then Derek [McInnes] has a lot of hard work to do to keep him at the football club, because I think he could be a massive part of what lies ahead."