How do you solve a problem like Ryan Jack?
When he’s fit, he’s one of our best players. Earlier in the season when we were playing with the Scotland international at the base of a three and two more attack-minded midfielders in front of him we saw some of our best football, it also took months for us to concede a goal with him in the starting XI.
Unfortunately, he is getting to the stage where he is missing as many games as he is available for and after Steven Gerrard ruled him out of the Slavia Prague game in the pre-match press conference, doubts began to circulate on social media about his ability to be relied upon going forwards.
The issue that Jack has is that he has an underlying condition with his knee caused by Motherwell’s Cedric Kipre stamping on it in Pedro Caixinha’s failed tenure, it was operated on at the time but he still has to manage it carefully, but he is now at the stage where he is getting secondary issues – primarily with his calf – where the muscle is trying to do two things at once; stabilise the joint and mobilise it, causing it to break down.
If it can’t be fixed with an operation – the timing is horrendous with Scotland attending it’s first major tournament in over 20 years – then we have to look at other options, you can’t make tactical plans if you don’t know if a player is going to be available from one week to the next, that Gerrard said he could have played but was keeping him for this week makes it even more worrying.
Nnamdi Ofoborh has already been signed up but with interest in Glen Kamara, and Bongani Zungu unlikely to stay, we really need to be looking at reinforcements in the middle of the park – Scott Arfield and Steven Davis won’t be around for ever and shouldn’t be expected to do the work of players ten years younger.