It’s still fairly early in the season, yes, but after 11+ matches, including friendlies, it may already be time for Michael Beale to reassess his expensive forward line who quite clearly aren’t delivering.
Yesterday saw Steven Gerrard signing Kemar Roofe shine, along with Ross Wilson/Giovanni van Bronckhorst signing Rabbi Matondo do the same.
It’s now starting to get slightly into the ‘judge’ point of the season where, after four competitive domestic matches (and 3 European ones), we can offer something of an insight into what Michael Beale’s summer work is offering, and while Jack Butland is clearly looking pretty good and Jose Cifuentes is doing well too, none of the pricy forward line Beale brought in this summer are.
Instead it’s the current lot who are doing the business – Tavernier is still scoring like there’s no tomorrow, Kemar Roofe has returned and instantly showed his class, while Rabbi Matondo is champing at the bit to prove himself, and is succeeding.
But Cyriel Dessers? Abdallah Sima? Sam Lammers? Danilo?
They’ve not cut it at all.
They look disparate – yes, Sima has moments, very ‘Fashion-like’ in that he offered a stunning goal line clearance in Dingwall, and that absolutely stellar goal v PSV, but aside these he looks like Bambi on Ice.
Dessers got those two assists in midweek too, and even scored v Servette, but he’s not looked comfortable and his movement and touch aren’t quite there yet. He’s also missing a tonne of chances.
Danilo has been dismal – no getting away from that. A solid 7 v Livi aside, he’s offered absolutely nothing yet and hasn’t settled at all. He’s missed three open goals already.
And Lammers works hard but ultimately there’s a reason his career crashed in 2018 and he’s been a journeyman since. Atalanta wrote £5M off on his part for a reason.
But then we have Matondo, a man reborn. Roofe, a natural goalscorer. These two showed over 90 minutes between them what we Rangers fans expect.
We know that as £15M investment goes, Beale can’t just dump his four summer additions. He has to persist with them – he has to hope it starts to really click with them.
Because at some point Rabbi Matondo and Kemar Roofe will raise their hand and expect more.
It’s up to the four new boys to get on it soon.