There have been a lot of conspiracy theories surrounding where Oliver Antman is and why he’s not playing. True, his initial form, despite a brilliant debut, wasn’t great, following Russell Martin getting his hands on him.
Plus he had an injury that curtailed him big time, but he was coming onto a game before the Finn found himself benched.
There have been theories that he’s not favoured by Danny Rohl, while others that he’s injured.
The truth is somewhere in the middle.
The real truth is he isn’t a Rohl signing and suffered particularly badly from the German’s reticence on using wingers when he first began at Rangers.
Rohl barely used width, even shunting Mikey Moore as a 10 in the middle and not bothering at all with Antman, Matondo or Gassama in general. Like previous managers he mainly used the fullbacks for wings, essentially Tavernier and previously, Meghoma.
But things have changed. He plays a 4-4-2 with active wingers now, trying two up top to see if that works. It isn’t really but that’s another story.
So where’s Antman?
Well, it is partially true that this manager just isn’t keen on him. Sometimes managers just prefer one player to another, and that Antman has only started 4 matches under Rohl says a lot.
But there’s the other issue. Antman has missed a lot of football with an adductor injury, the one that ruled him out in the first place. He’s been managing it ever since injury in the Falkirk draw, and it’s meant significantly that he’s been unable to sustain a run.
Think Ryan Jack and that knee injury he got at Rangers, which Steve Clarke made a lot worse on an international camp. He had to manage that every match thereafter.
Antman is the same. He has a nasty ongoing issue which requires management, and added to that that Rohl may not fully fancy him at the moment anyway and the Finn is unlikely to crack the first team at Rangers any time soon.
Our best hope for him at this point is a low-key end to the season and a proper return to fitness this summer.