While Tavernier was sidelined by injury, Patterson had an extended run in the team and started again at the weekend, with Tavernier on the bench.
The 19-year-old had a solid outing in his team’s 2-0 Scottish Cup win against arch rivals Celtic at Ibrox on Sunday and his showing caught the eye of Rangers legend Hateley.
Ex-Gers star Hateley is of the view that Patterson is growing with each passing game and now poses a genuine challenge to Tavernier’s first team place under Gerrard.
“What we are seeing right now, we can actually see him growing from game to game to game”, Hateley said on Ten10 Podcasts.
“I mean most things, he did [only] one thing wrong [on Sunday], gave the ball away, but his team-mates helped him out.
“But for me [on Sunday], there is so much more you are going to see from this boy. He loves that cut in, now we are seeing him driving into the middle of the park.
“See in 18-months’ time when he starts to put the man-body on him.
“He is going to be so powerful, so strong, and you can already see a confident young man prepared to take anybody on, right.
“He is real big threat to Tav right now.”
However, Hateley revealed he expects Tavernier to come back to the starting eleven when his fully fit as Patterson is still young and should not be over extended.
“Well, you’ve got your captain, that is the million-dollar question [on whether to keep Patterson in the team over Tavernier owing to the starlet’s form].
“I would expect the captain to come back into the side, you would expect Tav to come into the side, but see when you are Nathan Patterson, anyway with a young player, playing on top of their game, but then you take them out for a little rest put them on the bench, you know how it works.”
With 17 goals and 15 assists in 41 games across all competitions, Gers skipper Tavernier has been integral to his team’s season and it remains to be seen how Gerrard will handle his selection headache in the right-back role with Patterson stepping up.
