Steven Gerrard made ten changes to his side for Sunday afternoon’s fixture against East Fife.
Senior players like Allan McGregor, James Tavernier, Connor Goldson, Steven Davis, Scott Arfield and Alfredo Morelos, were all left at home, as the manger took full advantage of the opportunity to rotate.
It wasn’t just the starting XI where there were changes, though.
Recent signings Brandon Barker and Andy King were named amongst the substitutes and were handed debuts in the second half.
However, despite being named in the squad for the first time this season, Jamie Murphy wasn’t given a run-out.
Rangers winger Murphy left on bench as precaution
“I was thinking of maybe putting him [Murphy] on,” Gerrard told RangersTV after the game. “But we are here on astro-turf again – and there is no evidence to say astro-turf caused the problem – but I just wasn’t comfortable putting him on there.”
“We were winning the game with a clean sheet and Jake Hastie has been waiting patiently in the wings, working very hard and trained very well yesterday, so he deserved a run-out.”
This mistrust of an artificial surface stems from the serious knee injury Murphy picked up exactly a year ago today, away at Kilmarnock in the same competition.
It’s perhaps fair enough that Gerrard decided against handing the winger his big competitive comeback. Yet, it’s frustrating for the fans who’re so keen to see him back, while it must be very hard to take for the player himself.
After multiple summer additions, he finds himself well down the pecking order and he would have looked at this fixture as a rare opportunity to impress.
Gerrard recently claimed that he would consider sending Murphy out on loan, but that he would discuss the best route forward with the player himself [Daily Record].
It’s unclear how that conversation went, but even if the 29-year-old does stay at Ibrox after the window shuts, based on this logic, it’s unlikely he’ll feature in the League Cup quarter-final.
That’s because, much to the consternation of Rangers fans, it’s away to Livingston on yet another artificial surface.
