Steven Gerrard made a summer player choice – he got it wrong

As Ibrox Noise’s Kirsty has highlighted in a previous entry, Steven Gerrard certainly made a mistake last summer in making James Tavernier permanent captain.

But following the recent lack of effort, quality and dig in the side, it only highlights the void of a Greg Docherty-shaped object in our first team as well.

We know we know, we’ve banged on about this for ages, but the more he excels down south, the more it frustrates us that it’s not at Ibrox he’s doing it.

Docherty was pretty clear in Malaga – unlike the rest of the squad, he was the one player Steven Gerrard had not had a one to one with. We were more than a bit disappointed, and it was evident that the new manager did not see Docherty as part of his immediate plans.

Instead, he signed Lassana Coulibaly and shipped the ex-Hamilton man on loan off to Shrewsbury.

To suggest Docherty has lit up League One while Coulibaly, three or so matches aside, has been utterly dismal, is an understatement – and to add insult to injury, he’s a loan.

The one solace we have is Gerrard didn’t actually sell the midfield anchor – we can recall him, in January we understand, and that is action Gerrard must undertake.

We need as many players who will fight for our jersey as possible, and it was a flagrant error to cut him loose in the first place.

Imagine guys like Arfield, Jack and Docherty in midfield. Pure raw power and industry, with no lack of ability and goals to boot. True, a lack of playmaker in there, and that will hopefully be addressed in due course as well.

But it’s the return of Docherty which is paramount at this point – while many fans, ourselves included, had praised the effort and grit in recent months, the past 180 minutes have seen a desperate absence of it, and guys like Docherty will inject the midfield with a tonne of dig, power, and it seems now, goals.

Bring him back!