Rangers suffered from a pretty terrible weekend last weekend.

The Gers couldn’t breakdown St Johnstone as they shared the spoils at Ibrox. A day later current Scottish Premiership champions and leaders Celtic scored a last gasp winner to beat Kilmarnock at Rugby Park, extending their lead to an eight point gap!

There might not be any coming back from that.

Gers boss Steven Gerrard has guided his team to some impressive results during his maiden year in charge but unfortunately for him and his players they haven’t been consistent enough to keep up fully with their Glasgow rivals.

Allan McGregor, Kyle Lafferty and new January recruits Jermain Defoe and Steven Davis were brought to Ibrox could give the young stars the confidence and guidance needed to mount a serious title challenge.

The veterans need to step up and try and get their side back in the hunt, just in case Celtic slip up.

In fairness, goalkeeper McGregor has been a terrific signing. The goalie has produce match winning performances both domestically and in Europe.

Yet the thirty-seven year old needs to watch how he protects himself. I’ve followed the Scottish internationalist during his entire career and he often sticks his leg out and catches his opponents. The keeper will tell you that he’s just protecting himself from challenges but it sometimes looks nasty, he tends to raise his feet too high and leave a boot out for too long.

It caught up with him against Aberdeen recently and he was retrospectively given a two game ban. McGregor needs to calm down slightly in those situations because his teammates need him in between the sticks and not in the stands.

After a very bright first couple of games, Kyle Lafferty hasn’t done enough since re-joining Rangers in 2018. The tall forward has it in him to be a game changer, we’ve seen him doing such during his first stint at Rangers, his time at Hearts and with Northern Ireland.

The thirty-one year old attacker has scored just four goals in twenty appearances for The Light Blues this term. That’s not good enough and it’s a stat that needs to increase between now and the end of season. He has to work his socks off, whether it be through the middle or on the wing. Lafferty has the attributes needed to bully and bamboozle defences, he just needs to switch on mentally and become that dynamic forward again!

Steven Gerrard has already put down the gauntlet to his experienced forward (The Scottish Sun):

“Kyle’s just got to keep his head down and work as hard as he can.”

“There will be opportunities in the short, medium and long term for him.”

“We still think he can contribute here and he’s got a big part to play.”

Jermain Defoe will get you goals, we know this and he’s already shown us that this will happen in Scotland. In his first five Gers appearances, the England hitman has scored three goals.

What Defoe has to do is become match fit and score when his team really needs him too. On Saturday, Jermain led the line as top scorer Alfredo Morelos missed the game through suspension. That’s when they need the veteran to score and he couldn’t get the job done.

Midfielder Steven Davis could be the one under the most pressure to shine between now and May.

During his first Rangers spell, the midfielder would become the club captain and he’d win various trophies with the Govan club. At that time, Davis was a key performer that made things happen.

The thirty-four year old hasn’t done that thus far since coming back. He hasn’t looked fully match fit and he hasn’t been that talismanic figure that he was before. I believe he still has it in him, he just needs to show it!

Rangers have a huge game against Killie tonight in the Scottish Cup. It might be their best chance of ending this campaign with some silverware. It could be a springboard to get back to winning ways and start a winning streak.

If The Light Blues are going to end the season with a significant flourish, then I believe that they’ll need their elder players to make a big impact when called upon!

Posted on February 20th, 2019 by scott
Filed under: Article