Joe Aribo played his 70th game of the season this week, an incredible total that says everything about his resilience but also explains why he wasn’t always at his sharpest, it doesn’t matter how fit you are, it’s impossible to maintain your best form playing so many games.
One of the contributing factors for him having to play so often was the injury to Ianis Hagi – added to Aaron Ramsey’s frequent unavailability – the Romanian international’s season being cruelly cut short just as Giovanni van Bronckhorst was finding the best way to utilise him in his squad.
An article in The Rangers Review by Craig Vickers has pinpointed exactly what the manager was trying to do with Hagi and that his return next season could be pivotal in improving our attack, the very player we were missing in the closing months of the season in tight domestic games.
Van Bronckhorst had just started to use Hagi in a central role where his “lack” of pace isn’t quite as important, instead it gets the most out of his ability to find space and bring others into play even when coming off the right-hand flank to allow James Tavernier to overlap.
Although his rehabilitation is progressing well – see his “The Comeback” series on his social media accounts – he is still unlikely to be back in full training until the season has kicked off, he might, and it’s a slim might, be back at some point during pre-season but won’t be anywhere near ready to play games for some time yet.
Arsene Wenger always talked about players returning from injuries being like “new signings” but on this occasion it’s a cliché that is very much applicable given Hagi’s change in role and how Gio will look to use him, not only will it benefit us, but Aribo will be able to get the odd weekend off too.