The problem with relying on one central striker is that, if they aren’t in form or having a good game, you need to be able to replace them with someone of equal quality or someone who, at least, has a chance of making an impact.
Since Giovanni van Bronckhorst took over as Rangers manager, and after over 50 games, he has only been able to call on his two best strikers, Kemar Roofe and Alfredo Morelos, 10 times – winning nine of these games and losing one to Red Star Belgrade via a last-minute penalty.
This season Antonio Colak has been a success considering how unsettled the team has been and because he has been thrown in at the deep end with all the pressure on his shoulders, three goals in four Champions League qualifying games suggests that he has done alright under the circumstances.
As we saw at Parkhead though, we had to rely on Morelos, who hadn’t played for two weeks, to come off the bench and it is indicative of Van Bronckhorst’s time as manager – that he got us to a European final and won the Scottish Cup playing without a striker for the last six weeks of the season doesn’t get the credit it deserves and is already being taken for granted.
Gio has basically been operating with one hand tied behind his back. As we saw when we won the league, having three strikers capable of scoring goals was hugely important to how we performed.
With Roofe nearing full fitness, we could soon have, for the first time in years, three genuinely top-class strikers who should be able to make the difference in games when there are fine margins and kill teams off, rather than letting them back in and giving them hope or even worse, points.