Rangers produced a frustrating draw against St. Johnstone in front of the home crowd and it was no surprise that the manager lashed out at the team for coming up with such a timid display. There was no doubt from the beginning on how the game was going to pan out. St. Johnstone were supposed to defend in numbers and hit Rangers on the break. That is what exactly occurred and to be fair, the best chances fell to St. Johnstone in the end as they hit the bar with Foderingham handsomely beaten.
This is the second 0-0 draw which Rangers have played out without Alfredo Morelos and that signifies the importance of the Colombian in this current lineup. Jermain Defoe was brought in for a similar situation with Morelos always being a top contender for suspension but the veteran English forward failed to produce any moment of magic. To be fair to him, the striker had to feed off scraps throughout the game, and none of the players behind him were able to set him up.
A game like this will happen again as most of the teams will sit back and defend in numbers when Rangers play at home. The Gers will enjoy plenty of possession and the opponents will just put two blocks of four and ask the question from the Bears to show the quality in the final third. At the moment, there doesn’t seem to be an answer from Rangers and we believe Gerrard needs to start Lafferty ahead of Defoe in games of this nature.
The Northern Irish forward played close to half an hour of the last game and looked the most threatening player after coming on. He took some decent attempts at goal and came close to scoring as he managed to hit the side net. There is no doubt that Rangers need a physical presence up top to break open games like these.
Defoe is at his best when he makes the runs from the shoulder of the defenders and his team-mates try to feed him with a through ball. A game like this will usually suit a counter-attacking team or a team which has an out and out playmaker. Rangers have none and there is no question of counter-attacking as they generally end up having more possession. Therefore Defoe’s ability as the man up front is wasted in games of these nature.
Rangers’ best line of attack often comes from wide regions as they don’t have enough quality in the middle of the pitch to cut open the opposition’s defence. Therefore crosses from both the wide players and overlapping runs of the fullbacks often seems like their best mode of attack. Lafferty will be more threatening in this set up in the box and we feel Gerrard needs to bring him in the first team in the absence of Morelos.
