Rangers injury list is one that has been largely ignored recently but you can guarantee if seven Celtic players were missing from their squad yesterday and the result had been reversed, you wouldn’t hear the end of it.
It’s not an excuse, Giovanni van Bronckhorst had enough good players at his disposal to get a result at Parkhead, after all, he’s had one hand tied behind his back almost since he took the job with Filip Helander, Kemar Roofe and Ianis Hagi barely playing ten games combined following his appointment as manager.
Those arguing the impact that these players would make are missing the point – it’s not so much what they would offer on the pitch if they were fit, it’s the fact that we have three internationals on big wages taking up space in the squad without contributing anything. Their names on the wage bill also mean that we can’t go out and buy others for their positions until they are either sold or leave at the end of their contracts – Hagi the only one likely to return to being of huge importance despite Roofe and Helander’s unquestioned ability.
As it is, even without considering John Souttar, Ben Davies and Tom Lawrence, Gio needs to be judged when he has all his best players available to him, to put it another way – how many times has he had two fit strikers to call on since he replaced Steven Gerrard? When you think about it, it can’t be more than a handful of games – if that.
It’s the knock-on effect, Glen Kamara having to play as a number ten, James Sands playing at left centre-half, and expecting one striker to play every game, the only problem is, that by the time that they are all fit, it might be too late.