Should Steven Gerrard ditch out-of-form star?

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Should Steven Gerrard ditch out-of-form star?


While he took a few matches to get up to speed, Mali’s Lassana Coulibaly began to look like a £5M+ player with his destroying tackles, his hard-running, his pressing and his harassing in midfield.

Indeed, he looked to every intent and purpose enough to make us here at Ibrox Noise even forget about Greg Docherty for a while, given his rampaging destruction in midfield.

Then… he got injured.

Absent for a month, Coulibaly has started the last six, and to say he’s been a shadow of his old self is an understatement.

Gone is the energy, gone is the midfield breaking of play, and he looks completely off the pace.

We know the lad is a bit of a slow starter – it took him two or three matches to start showing his qualities in August, but once he did, he was unstoppable and a real asset.

Now? He’s AWOL. He is barely a passenger, and it seems more than just an issue of form – he looks noticeably out of sorts, and isn’t even playing in the same kind of position he was before.

Briefly it looked like Gerrard had switched his position from DM to CM, supporting both Ejaria and Jack depending which team had the ball. And there did seem a small improvement as a result, if nothing to shout about.

But it’s more than that – whatever the extent of that thigh injury he sustained, he lacks the running, the grit, the steel and the sheer mobility of before.

Lassana Coulibaly on form and in the right place is an asset, but right now he’s none of those three.

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10 COMMENTS

  1. Why do we feel the need to always play two wingers. I've always liked the mid 90's team where we played McCall, Ferguson and Durrant in a solid three in the centre with one winger who'd switch wings periodically and with two strikers.

    Yes, you can lose balance but it didn't seem to harm us back then…

    Play Jack, Arfield and Ejaria with Kent as the free winger and Laff and Morelos up top as a pair…

    • Coulibally is playing out of position as is John Flanagan. Coulibally was at his best when he was playing as the only defensive midfielder when Ryan Jack was injured. You cannot play both Jack and Coulibally in the same team. I believe that Coulibally is the better option but play him as the defensive midfielder. John Flanagan is getting a lot of pelters recently but that is a square peg in around hole and Steven Gerrard should shoulder some of the blame here. I would like to see how Flanagan perform at Right Back I think it is only fair that he is given a chance in his natural position. I also believe that if we are to challenge for the league we need more quality, flair, aggressiveness and goal scorers in the midfield. We need a goal scoring No.10 and a midfield general that can ghost past and take a couple of players out and then thread that pass that splits the defence open. We will not challenge with the quality of Ejaria (no assists in 15 games horrendous) Jack (An average footballer no better) and Arfield (No 10 that has no speed, first touch is diabolical) Morelos deserves better support than he has at the moment. I've not even touched on other areas of the team but overall our deliveries from corners, free kicks and final pass has been embarrassing in the last 3 games plus the speed that we are playing. We are pedestrian. No where near the finished article

  2. Get him on the bench and play Jordan Rossiter,this boy needs to show us how good he really is and i think he could be world class,only my opinion ,also send that fucking donkey worrel back to forrest and bring back big Nikola Katic…No Surrender…

  3. We need to prioritize our club, the loan brigade should be rotation players at best and the minutes they get regardless of form go to players who are gonna be here in the future.

  4. I am a Coulibally fan…Ryan Jack needs to step up a gear for me. Coulibally better technical wise . Rossiter needs game time perhaps with the U23 squad to feel ready

  5. I think for now, we should rotate him, McCrorie and Rossiter. I think Coulibally does need to be benched at the moment, because he seems to have lost his mojo. But giving him a wee time-out, may kick-start his hunger once more.

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