Umar Sadiq’s Rangers future has been thrown up into the air after last night.
The Nigerian forward didn’t feature in the 18-man squad selected to face Ayr United. That was despite Kyle Lafferty being unavailable due to being cup-tied. This left Alfredo Morelos as the only striker, as he notched the third and picked up a yellow card in the 4-0 rout.
This now leaves Rangers with no other alternative for the semi-final against Aberdeen than Sadiq. Seldom will the Nigerian be presented with a chance as big as this one throughout the rest of the season.
Steven Gerrard has appeared to open the door for the Nigerian forward to enter the fold. Yet, at the same time, he gave a brutally honest verdict of where he’s at in this moment in time.
Speaking to the press after Rangers’ mauling of Ayr, Gerrard touched on his selection dilemma.
“It’s a frustration – we lose a player in form and we are going to have to find a way to get the job done without a natural no.9 unless Sadiq comes to the party and improves an awful lot between now and then.”
Hard-hitting comments
It was short and sweet, but it was also hard-hitting for Sadiq to hear. It’s clear that he isn’t getting game-time for a reason, and it’s easy to conclude that Gerrard isn’t happy with what he’s seeing from the forward.
If he’s to make the squad for the semi against Aberdeen, it’s clear that big improvements have to be made. If he can’t get into the squad when there’s no other strikers available, what chance does he have?
Even this early into his Rangers career, you get the feeling that Sadiq was a hopeful loan punt that went wrong. Gerrard clearly doesn’t trust him to come in and do a job. That much was clear after his omission from the squad last night despite many thinking he would make it.
If he couldn’t even get a cameo appearance against Ayr ahead of youth players, then the situation looks bleak. It’s difficult from a supporter’s perspective to work out what Sadiq is doing wrong. After all, we haven’t seen much of him at all as he’s only made three competitive appearances, and all were from the bench.
The Rangers manager has still opened the door for Sadiq to come in and take part against Aberdeen. It’s clear, however, that it won’t happen unless he knuckles down and improves massively.
