Former Rangers striker Greg Stewart believes Kemar Roofe is “more than capable” of replacing Alfredo Morelos after El Bufalo was ruled out for the remainder of the season – but insists the Jamaican international needs to get more service after Sunday’s Old Firm disappointment.
Rangers confirmed Morelos’ absence yesterday when they announced the Colombian had undergone surgery on a thigh injury sustained while on international duty.
Roofe led the line against Celtic on Sunday and is likely to be handed a place in the starting XI tomorrow night against Braga, and Stewart is confident the ex-Leeds and Anderlecht star can prove his quality.
“Alfredo Morelos is such a good player and of course they would miss him,” Stewart said [Scottish Sun].
“He brings a presence and his all-round game has improved this season. He’s scored a good few goals, and it was always going to be tough to replace him. But at Rangers, you can’t rely on one man and that’s why you have a big squad of top players.
“Because they lost and they didn’t create enough, people will say they missed Morelos a lot. Injuries and stuff happen, so others are there to come in.
“Kemar Roofe is more than capable of doing the job up there, but he didn’t get the service he needed to have an impact on the game.
“If he doesn’t get that, there’s not much he can do.
“Under Gio, he seems quite happy if the striker drops deep and links up the play, but I didn’t think Rangers hurt Celtic enough.
“They got in behind for the goal and Kent set up Ramsey for a good finish.
“But after that they seemed to stop doing that, and then they lost two poor goals.
“So it gave them a mountain to climb.
“Rangers were six points clear and now they are that amount behind. People talk about the winter-break curse, but I can’t explain why it’s happened in recent years.
“You don’t do anything different from before the break. You do the same things, but it seems to happen for some reason.
“It was always going to be difficult for Rangers to repeat the success of last year.
“There were foundations for the club to dominate, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.”
Meanwhile, will Rangers rue not investing more of the Nathan Patterson money in the playing squad?