Steven Gerrard has all but confirmed that Rangers are set to sign Nottingham Forest defender Joe Worrall. The centre back’s name has been doing the rounds since the last few days, and Gerrard should be a relieved man that he finally managed to get his hands on a defender. They were after quite a few of them, especially ‘a left-footed centre-back’ but in the end, the manager had to settle on a right-footed one. The Englishman is going to move on a loan deal with Forest looking to make a permanent deal next season.
After their triumph in the Europa League game last night, Gerrard said,”Hopefully, there will be some good news with Grezda in the coming days, but in terms of Joe, it’s good news. As we were playing he should have signed a deal to be a Rangers player for a year.”
Worrall was a crucial member for the Nottingham Forest side during the last season as he made 35 appearances in all competitions for the Tricky Trees. However, ever since the appointment of Aitor Karanka in January, he has fallen down the pecking order. More so now that they have signed the likes of Michael Dawson, Michael Hefele and Tobias Figueiredo in the transfer window.
The Spanish manager seems to have no qualms in letting his 21-year-old defender leave. He recently said,”If Joe wants to go and it is the right place for him to play and all of us agree that it is the right thing for everyone – I would understand that. But if he is going to a place and he is not going to play, he would learn more here by staying here and being around Dawson, Fox, Hefele and Tobias.”
“It will be difficult for him this season. To try to achieve something, you need experienced players. That is the reason why we signed players like Dawson and Hefele and why we have players like Danny Fox playing now.”- he added further.
What can the fans and Gerrard expect from him?
Worrall was not the first choice option for Gerrard as there were strong links of Rangers going for the likes of Jake Cooper, Jack Simpson and Curtis Tilt. All of them had one thing in common, i.e., they were left-footed centre-backs. So it would be fair to say, Gerrard is not getting exactly what he wanted. However, the team was severely lacking depth at the back and signing a defender was more important than anything else. The likes of Connor Goldson and Nikola Katic have done well, but if they get injured or suspended, Gerrard won’t have had many options to choose from.
Worrall can be termed as a classic no-nonsense defender. He is 6ft4inches and is generally quite strong in the air. The young defender is robust and tough in his challenges. However, he lacks in the technical aspect of his game. His positioning is sometimes questionable as he often gets drawn into challenges he shouldn’t make. Also, another drawback for Worrall is that he doesn’t realise when he should stick tight to his man and when he should fall back deep to defend. Inspite of all this, he could be termed as a natural leader at the back as the Englishman had successful stints with the Three Lions at the u-21 level while captaining them.
Given that Worrall is young, he can improve on quite a few aspects of the game. He might not be the finished product yet, but the Gers would be delighted to have him as a proper backup option for the centre back role.
