JFK-1 1,677 Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 IT was a professional performance from Rangers on Tuesday night as they saw out the tie with FK Shkupi and progressed into the second round of the Europa League. But Steven Gerrard was right to highlight the lack of goals over the two legs and I think that will be his biggest concern as he reflects on his first matches in charge. Rangers should have won the first game at Ibrox far more comfortably and they had enough chances in Macedonia to win the game. It is not as if they are creating nothing, they are carving out some chances, but they are just not putting them in the back of the net. That is a worry. People seem to be settling in at the back, Allan McGregor has dealt with what he has to well and the midfield has been OK. But the lack of goals over the two games will be a concern for the manager. I am sure he and Gary McAllister will be a sitting down and looking at options to bring a striker in. It is a natural striker we need, a predator in the box. I know they are hard to come by but we need someone that is in the box all the time and sniffs out chances and goals. Rangers need a McCoist or Boyd type striker. That is what they are lacking at this moment in time. You can’t say that you’ll just give it until three or four weeks into the Premiership and see if it works because by that stage you could have lost a couple of games and dropped some crucial points. Right now the side is the opposite of what it was last season. Rangers were the top scorers in the Premiership last term but we gave away some terrible goals. Now we have had three clean sheets, and you have to keep in mind the opposition that they have played when judging that. They have still scored eight goals in three games but you look at who they are against and then consider the challenges that will come in the Europa League and the Premiership. There are far tougher tests to come, especially in that run of league games with Aberdeen, Motherwell and Celtic away from home. Rangers have to get it right before then so I am sure the manager will be looking for another striker to come in. Umar Sadiq has joined from Roma but you can’t pin all your hopes on him right now. Given his size, he will provide a presence up there and while he will be working hard in training, he does lack a bit of match sharpness and he won’t be rushed in before he is ready. There are no guarantees that he is going to be the main man because he is still a young player as well. We will see another forward coming into the club. I’m not sure if they will buy anyone but they might look to get someone in on loan. It wouldn’t surprise me if Steven goes back to Liverpool to try and get someone like Dominic Solanke or uses his contacts down south to try and get a player up here on loan. There are lots of players that will find it hard to break into a Premier League side this season and he may feel one or two could do a job here. If you are not going to play down there, a move to rangers may appeal for the player and the parent club. This is where his contacts come in and I am sure he and Gary will have been discussing that since the final whistle on Tuesday night. That is the problem that he must solve right now. We need a natural striker because that is what is missing. If you think of the chances we had early on Tuesday night, if we had scored one the tie was over. We created a couple and missed a couple and that has to change. If you look at Alfredo Morelos, I think his confidence has gone a wee bit. I know it is early doors but it can get to you when you get chances and don’t take them. It will be a worry for the manager and I would imagine it will be something he will try and fix quickly. http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/sport/16364789.derek-johnstone-steven-gerrard-must-solve-rangers-striking-conundrum-sooner-rather-than-later/ 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unicorn 206 Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 He’s correct but easier said than done. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Barristan Selmy 222 Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 I don't find his articles very insightful. We've been murder going forward for years. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete 2,499 Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 The last thing in this world we need is a Boyd type striker. Football has moved on from lazy players. Defence starts with the striker these days. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gonzo79 13,770 Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 We need a clinical finisher...but probably won't find one within our means. Which is why I hope we are looking further afield than England. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JFK-1 1,677 Posted July 20, 2018 Author Share Posted July 20, 2018 Derek has a tendency to often state the obvious. We have been talking about the striking problem since the first Shkupi game. What puzzles me is why are last seasons highest scoring team struggling to find the net. Is it just early season 'rust'? Will they begin to hit a goal steak? I think they might as they did many times last season but there were also other times we just couldn't score despite total dominance. And that tendency eventually ended our challenge when it was put alongside the tendency to leak preventable goals. He appears to have solved the defensive problems and now needs to get us scoring consistently while creating so many chances. I don't know if what we already have can step up and do that. There are some who have still to appear and reportedly there is still up to 5 million available in the transfer kitty. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gonzo79 13,770 Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 6 minutes ago, JFK-1 said: He appears to have solved the defensive problems I wouldn't be too sure about that. Shkupi were crap. Wait until we're 1/4 way through the league campaign before jumping to conclusions. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JFK-1 1,677 Posted July 20, 2018 Author Share Posted July 20, 2018 12 minutes ago, Gonzo79 said: I wouldn't be too sure about that. Shkupi were crap. Wait until we're 1/4 way through the league campaign before jumping to conclusions. While I would agree that we have to wait to come to concrete conclusions I think we can say they definitely look a lot better and I suspect Shkupi would have scored against last seasons defence. As for Shkupi being crap that's hard to say at this point. Anybody can look crap against superior opposition and at this stage we can't definitively say how good or bad we actually are. We hammered Bury 6-0 and their manager stated afterwards that they spent the entire night 'chasing ghosts' Are Liverpool crap? They drew 0-0 with Bury with Klopp saying afterwards. Quote “Nil-nil isn’t a big problem, but I’d have liked a win. Smarter decisions in some situations would have got a win.” Liverpool should be able to field a third string that could hammer them and I'm fairly confident we would all have been concerned if we had drawn 0-0 with them. I'm sure Liverpool will come good but we can too. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig 5,199 Posted July 21, 2018 Share Posted July 21, 2018 14 hours ago, Gonzo79 said: I wouldn't be too sure about that. Shkupi were crap. Wait until we're 1/4 way through the league campaign before jumping to conclusions. Yeah, I wouldn’t be so sure about it either. They haven’t really been tested yet. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BEARGER 1,829 Posted July 21, 2018 Share Posted July 21, 2018 These articles are written for DJ, he just takes the money. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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