Ahead of this afternoon’s home fixture against St Johnstone, Rangers manager Steven Gerrard has a fairly significant hurdle to overcome. Top goalscorer Alfredo Morelos is suspended for the match, while Jermain Defoe and Kyle Lafferty are both said to be nursing injuries. Without this absent trio, the Ibrox club have no other centre forwards in the senior squad and Gerrard may be forced into playing a youth team forward in a bid to solve his striker crisis.
The former Liverpool captain is still hopeful that either Defoe or Lafferty will be fit in time for kick-off this afternoon, but will no doubt be planning for the worst-case scenario where both are absent from his starting lineup. The question is, what then?
Gerrard himself has already admitted he is considering throwing youth striker Dapo Mebude in at the deep end and has recalled the player from training with the Scotland under-19s in case his hand is forced. Facing a physically imposing St Johnstone team would prove to be something of a baptism of fire for the 17-year-old, but Gerrard could find himself with few alternatives.
READ MORE: Steven Gerrard faces striker crisis ahead of St Johnstone visit
Rangers have relied heavily on Alfredo Morelos this season and his absence is sure to be sorely felt by Gerrard’s side. But what is especially curious about Rangers this season is just how much they rely on their strikers in general; 62% of the team’s league goals this season have came from the strikers, with 10 coming from midfield and a further 11 from defence. It should also be pointed out that James Tavernier, as Gerrard’s designated penalty taker, accounts for the majority of these goals from defence via converted spot kicks.
Gerrard’s side need a focal point at the top of the pitch, someone to convert the chances fashioned by their more creative players: arguably more so than any other top Premiership side. No team inside the Premiership’s top nine clubs relies more heavily on their strikers to convert chances, as the graphic above demonstrates. Barring the league’s bottom three, a higher percentage of Rangers’ goals this season have come through a striker, as opposed to the midfield or defence.
An illuminating case in point here could be Rangers’ League Cup semi-final against Aberdeen earlier in the season. With Morelos and Lafferty both missing, Gerrard was forced to select Umar Sadiq in his one and only start for the club before his loan was terminated. To say Sadiq was disappointing would be an understatement. The on-loan striker was ineffective in virtually every aspect against Derek McInnes’ side and this lack of presence up front ultimately cost Rangers the match.
This should be a cause for concern for Gerrard ahead of today’s game. Most other teams could get away with playing an ineffective striker as they can rely on goals coming from elsewhere in the team. Or in the case of St Johnstone, start a centre forward like Tony Watt where goalscoring isn’t his immediate priority. The former Celtic striker is tasked with acting as a target man at the head of the St Johnstone attack; holding up play, harrying defenders and only occasionally looking for goal himself.
It seems unreasonable to suggest that Mebude could perform in such a role against St Johnstone today, given the player’s lack of experience in senior football. So where, then, does the solution lie for Gerrard?
The Rangers boss does have a couple of left-field solutions elsewhere in his squad, but none are altogether convincing. Eros Grezda has featured semi-regularly for the Albanian national team as a striker, and occasionally featured up front for his old club Osijek, but has failed find the net in 15 appearances as a centre forward for club and country. Dani Candeias is another who has very occasionally been moved to spearhead the Rangers attack, but the Portuguese simply does not look comfortable there and his talents are better served elsewhere on the pitch. But there’s someone else at Ibrox who could very possible do a job up front against Saints today.
Glenn Middleton has usually featured on the left wing for Rangers this season but has played centre forward in the past, notably for the Scotland under-21s. Middleton admittedly hasn’t scored in this position for Scot Gemmill’s side, but his all-round play has been encouraging enough to suggest that he could function well in this role on a one-off occasion.
READ MORE: Rangers winger Glenn Middleton hopes players' plastic pitch concerns are taken on board
Middleton played the majority of Rangers’ home game with Valencia up front and gave a decent acquittal of himself. The 19-year-old has a few goals to his name this season already, including an away goal against Spartak Moscow, and has shown that he has the ability to finish chances, even if there is a slight issue surrounding the winger’s composure.
It’s hardly an ideal replacement for Gerrard, but Middleton has experience playing as a striker and could well do a job against Saints later today. Starting Medube would be a gamble for Gerrard and it may be too soon for the young striker to make his mark on the Rangers first team, particularly against a side like St Johnstone who thrive on bullying opposition forwards. Middleton has shown an eye for goal this season and has plenty of first-team minutes under his belt this campaign, and must be the obvious choice to start for Rangers if their absent trio cannot play.
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