It’s back to the drawing board for Rangers and Gerrard as the Gers crashed out of the Scottish Cup quarter-finals against Aberdeen. Barring a massive upset, Celtic should have the Premiership title under their control and Rangers don’t have much to play for this season.
Rangers’ inconsistency has cost them the most this season as they often failed to get any momentum. A top team is supposed to go on winning runs, but the Bears failed to win 5-6 consecutive games. It was always two steps forward one step back kind of a campaign and Gerrard would have to solve some of the problems to make sure these mistakes aren’t repeated in the upcoming season.
One of the significant areas of concern for Rangers have been opening up defences when the opposition tries to sit back and defend doggedly. In the midweek clash, Aberdeen didn’t enjoy much possession, but they looked in control for most parts of the game without the ball. The Bears seem to lack that cutting edge in the final third and a playmaker is an absolute necessity for the club.
One player they should target is Wigan Atheltic’s Nick Powell. The playmaker is currently in the final few months of his contract with the Latics, and there is no sign yet that he might commit his future with them. The playmaker played a considerable role in getting Wigan back to the Championship. We feel that he could turn out to be a significant success at Ibrox.
Almost all the Rangers midfielders are industrious in nature, but none of them has that quality to create a telling moment in the final third. Powell is an intelligent operator as he reads situations well. The Englishman can find space for himself and his team-mates. His pass picking abilities are also impressive, and when required, the former Manchester United ace can lead the line as well.
In November last year, Gerrard had stressed the importance of having an outright no. 10. He had said (The Scottish Sun), ”We have those players here (Creative players) but what we haven’t got is a natural No10, someone who is described as No10 and that’s his job. So maybe in the future that might be an area we might look at.”
The club didn’t sign anyone like that in January, and that probably came back to bite Rangers in the as*. However, we cannot be too harsh on the club for that as signing top players in January is never an easy task and one is more likely to get players who are on the fringes of the squad. There is no doubt that Gerrard needs to solve this dilemma in the upcoming summer and Powell seems like a decent bet to us.
