If Philippe Clement is serious about Rangers giving 56 a real shot, and if he’s serious about the improvement we saw v Hearts, the following men must be nowhere near the starting XI named to face St Mirren:
Connor Goldson, Borna Barisic, Nicolas Raskin, John Lundstram, Kieran Dowell, Tom Lawrence, Fabio Silva, Ross McCausland and Scott Wright.
But let’s go through these players and illustrate the issues.
Goldson:
He’s been desperate this season – he’s been dire since 55, albeit did do fairly well on the run to Sevilla bar the final, of course. His race is run but sadly Rangers are trapped in a £40Kpw deal for another two years. We really hope Steven Gerrard takes this guy off our hands. He’s been especially abysmal the past two months and finally got dropped last weekend. Please don’t reverse that.
Barisic:
He’s off anyway this summer, his heart is well spent at Rangers and he isn’t interested. Fielding him even as an emergency is a huge egregious error even taking into account the lack of fit LBs. Put Ben Davies on that side.
Lundstram:
After Clement confirmed he’s rejected the club’s offers and we can’t afford him, it’s a parting of the ways inevitable now. He won’t commit on the pitch for fear of injury so he’s got to be on the bench now.
Raskin:
Has been dire since last May, that’s a full 12 months of nothing from him. Ruined it for himself when he spoke about Rangers being ‘just a step’ in his career but without playing the stuff to justify such an arrogant comment. He’s not favoured under this manager.
Lawrence:
Been a poor signing. Tonnes of injuries and has never really exerted his influence on any matches. Decent goal haul but he’s one we’d like to see the back of.
Dowell:
He’s a very very poor man’s Todd Cantwell, and he’s well below the levels needed at Rangers. He’s been unimpressive since joining and there’s a reason he didn’t feature v Hearts.
Silva:
Do we even need to justify this one. He’s just been a horrible flop of a signing and will go back to Wolves for his next loan in the summer, unless they can sell.
Wright:
Any Rangers team fielding Wright and Silva up front deserves everything it gets. Nothing else to add here.
McCausland:
This might be viewed as harsh, but he’s added nothing as a Rangers player since that incredible 10 days when he broke through. He can’t beat a man, doesn’t assist, doesn’t score, has no skill, and does little aside pressing. He is a hard enough runner but he’s not progressed beyond that initial breakthrough. That was 5 months ago. Or is it ‘give him a chance ffs’?
This leaves us with Butland, Tavernier, Balogun, Souttar, Davies, Sterling, Diomande, Cantwell, Roofe and Dessers.
There’s a bunch of others too but they’re injured so that’s moot till they’re fit – Matondo, Sima, Jack, Danilo, Ridvan, Cortes.
If we look at those who are available and actually appear to want to be at Rangers and have given something in the course of their time here, it’s no wonder Rangers need a desperate revamp this summer.
Squad is abysmal.
That’s 10 players we’ve mentioned! Obviously Clement is going to have to dip into the squad, into some of the players we’ve quoted as not being wanted, must not start.
But he really needs to keep these to a minimum if we’re to have any chance of the 3 points on Sunday.