Why Liverpool experiment is hurting Rangers….

We’ve been variable with regards to Ovie Ejaria around here. Some of us on the site loathe him, some are less strict on him, and some love him.

However following last night’s latest mediocre display from the Liverpool loanee, we have to say it’s become clear after five+ months at Ibrox he is not remotely developing as an attacking or creative midfielder and that ‘experiment’ has failed.

Ejaria once said in his Liverpool youth days that he saw himself as a goalscoring midfielder – and that he’d work on getting more attempts in the onion bag.

Well, it ain’t happening fella, and it’s making his selection curious.

As a purely ball winner and metronome, he is actually rather good. He’s strong on the ball, mostly, and usually manages to find a team mate at the end of it.

But only in his own half or modestly into opposition territory.

When it comes to advanced attack, he barely has anything to deliver, is unable to feed the flanks, is mostly dancing around the edge of the area and then laying the ball off before drifting back, and ultimately is not able to affect the final third on a meaningful level.

Which, ultimately isn’t his fault – he just hasn’t grown as that kind of midfielder. As mentioned, though, he is very decent at the deeper work – breaking up play, using his body to shield and protect the ball and supply nearby mates with possession.

But this then raises a problem – Steven Gerrard is ultimately playing with three defensive midfielders – a midfield which has three gritty, harrying ball winners by trade, while trying to turn one of them into an AM, one into a CM, and keep one doing what they do best.

And Ejaria’s game isn’t conducive to good play where he’s being forced into, and it renders the midfield imbalanced when he’s there.

Last night it was Jack, Coulibaly and Ejaria – that’s three of effectively the same players, asked to do different roles, with only one in position.

Now, we know Gerrard craves a new AM – he’s said to be looking at Everton’s Kieran Dowell and of course he lost Graham Dorrans. There’s Carlos Pena but we’ll cover that in another piece.

So ultimately creativity at the apex of midfield is chronically absent.

Ejaria has not grown into the player he probably thought he would and Gerrard hoped he would, and it leaves us with a slot we have no real valid player for.

Unless, of course, we change formation.

We’ll see what Stevie concocts at the weekend.