As the fall out continues from Rangers abysmal performance against Union Saint-Gilloise, the biggest issue – among many – was the severe lack of creativity in Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side.
Notably, a central midfield of Ryan Jack and Glen Kamara offered nothing other than horiztonal passes, and even those often failed to find their desire targets, an issue that we have seen for some time now – Joe Aribo is long gone and Ianis Hagi won’t be back for some time with Scott Arfield not expected to play every game.
Writing in The Athletic, Rangers correspondent Jordan Campbell highlighted the issue with a notable goal scorer for our potential opponents in the play-off round a teaser of what might have been:
“Steven Gerrard had identified Joey Veerman — who scored for Rangers’ potential play-off opponents PSV in the 1-1 draw against Monaco — as his priority target, but the funds never arrived.
“Rangers don’t really have that type of player, someone who can pick apart teams with vision. To take on that mantle is a lot to ask of Tillman, a 20-year-old with little experience, or academy product Alex Lowry.”
Campbell is right, Kamara does his best work behind the ball and in his own half, as does Jack, John Lundstram, James Sands and Steven Davis, all quality players in their own right but when we are playing against a team that sets up like USG or Livingston or Kilmarnock – who we play at the weekend – we need a ball carrier who will break lines or a passer who will find runners and gaps in opposition defences, surely, relying on a teenager and a newly signed 20-year old isn’t our plan for the season?
We have been linked with other midfielders but missing out on Veerman is still a source of frustration for some Rangers fans, seeing him score in the Champions League qualifiers against a decent team won’t make it any easier.