Is Steven Gerrard ready to make major call on 22-year old?

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Is Steven Gerrard ready to make major call on 22-year old?


On Sunday Steven Gerrard may have a huge decision to make. And it’s been a simmering issue for the past month. Few Rangers fans would deny we haven’t really taken to Nottingham Forest’s on-loan stopper Joe Worrall especially well.

While never exactly disgracing himself, Rapid Vienna aside he’s hardly stood out much either, generally being the epitome of ‘standard’ and especially struggling against Hearts’ physical presence in the form of Ikpeazu who simply overpowered him on a number of occasions in the first half.

And yet his place in the side has come at the expense of firm fans-favourite Nikola Katic, and for every passing match where the English stopper starts, more and more fans ask for the Croatian instead in disbelieving outrage.

This is not to say Worrall is hopeless. No, he isn’t. But Katic has just been a mountain for Gerrard so far and while he’s made a small amount of errors, his sudden and rather ruthless ditching to the bench has certainly not been favoured by his fans, Ibrox Noise very much included.

We just don’t know why he finds himself on the sidelines these days. He did nothing major wrong, and frequently put himself in the hurt for his club.

And yet it’s the 6/10 Worrall who plays these days, leaving many fans to argue about loan clauses and appearance guarantees.

Whatever the truth is, Worrall does seem to be the first choice, and we can’t imagine Katic returning this weekend. The Forest loanee has not consistently earned his place, but then Ryan Kent had one hell of a slow start as well and he’s now indispensable on current form, so perhaps there is still plenty room for Worrall to improve.

But equally, loan clauses aside, we remain puzzled as to why he’s apparently receiving that room for improvement when Katic sits idly by, waiting for his opportunity.

Perhaps the Croat is more seriously injured than we realised, but if so, why is he on the bench?

It’s a situation in which we are very interested to observe how it develops.

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7 COMMENTS

  1. I don't think worrell has done too badly. I like the fact he's a constant talker, which, suggests why he's England's u21 captain. Katic has been more dominating, but he's played a lot more games and Stevie is possibly worried about burn out. However, the main point is, katic is our player he should play 1st if fit

    • WorrAll.I'm the opposite with regards to his constant shouting and pointing. His positioning is suspect and he's always blaming someone else.I watched him during the Hearts game closely and in the early stages particularly he was all over the place and still blamed others, Tav in particular who told him where to go more than once.I like a vocal centre half if he can lead by example. I think Katic must be injured,then again he shouldn't be on the bench as the article states.Strange one.

  2. Agreed Gav, we should prioritise our players, except for resting them, unless loan player significantly better.

  3. Pretty sure Katic has been carrying a wee knock the last month or so, would explain his absence for us and Croatia, and the only reason he was on the bench that 1 time is because we had no other defensive cover and the big man said he would gut through it if needed. Just my 2 cents.

  4. Weren't we told that Katic didn't play against Livingston because of the plastic pitch causing back problems so a return this week on Hamiltons equally rubbish plastic pitch seems unlikely and a bit contradictory.

  5. Unless NK is Seriously Injured it should be Goldson & Him Week In/Week Out

    And maybe throw Aidan Wilson in there ocasionally

    Also Agree with Gav E, If they are Fit our players should play First before Any Loanees.

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