Philippe Clement has been working with one had tied behind his back for much of his tenure at Rangers with results only recently reflecting an improvement in circumstance.
The squad looks stronger by the week, but the manager hasn’t helped himself in the past with some strange decisions in terms of his starting XIs.
What has made a marked difference is having Hamza Igamane leading the line with Rangers’ next big hope drawing a comparison to one of, if not the greatest to ever do it.
- READ MORE: Premier Sports Cup Final: Predicted Rangers XI vs Celtic, Nedim Bajrami dropped as Danilo returns
How Hamza Igamane has shades of Cristiano Ronaldo for Rangers
The young Moroccan, 22, has shown a flexibility that Cyriel Dessers doesn’t have in his play.
Igamane can drop deep or wide, hold the ball up, beat players and link play, all whilst demonstrating that he can score all types of goals too.
Qualities that Cristiano Ronaldo shared in his last season at Man Utd before moving to Saudi Arabia to pad out his numbers and take it easy in his final years as a player.
Using league data only, via DataMB, Ronaldo performs better in terms of expected assists and non-penalty goals, however, Igamane’s form in the Europa League suggests that there is still more to come on the domestic front.
For context, Igamane has considerably more passes into the box, attacking actions, headers won and passes received than Dessers – despite his respectable goals tally, Dessers has been a massive part of Rangers problem with his overall level of play.
Is Igamane undroppable?
Asked if Igamane is undroppable, Clement set the bar predictably high for the Rangers No.29:
“Nobody is undroppable only when they play like this every time, we need to see where his physical level is.
“But he’s making major steps forward. A few months ago physically and tactically it was a long wait but he’s one of the boys who has the hunger and desire to grow physically.
“There’s a lot of potential in this group to improve.”
A repeat of his Spurs performance against Celtic and Igamane won’t just be undroppable, he’ll be a Rangers hero for the rest of his life.
