No sooner has Kemar Roofe been announced as available for selection than we see Todd Cantwell be ruled out for Rangers for the next few weeks, another player who is fit and ready to play again though is Dujon Sterling.
Having never played in midfield until Gers boss Philippe Clement saw a skillset that looked like a good match, the 24-year old Chelsea academy graduate hasi impressed in recent weeks.
Speaking ahead of what is sure to be a massive game at Ibrox against Hearts, Rangers will need Dujon Sterling to be at his combative best in the title run in when his physicality in the engine room could be key.
Rangers could rely on Dujon Sterling in massive fixture list
For all that Sterling isn’t a direct replacement for Cantwell – would it surprise you if he is though? – the knock on effect is that other players might have to move to cover the Light Blues playmaker.
In particular, Tom Lawrence and Mohamed Diomande, who have been playing as number eights, will probably have to join the three behind the striker and in more creative roles.
That Dujon Sterling has leap-frogged both Ryan Jack and Nicolas Raskin in terms of the defensive partner for John Lundstram, says it all about the impact that he has made since adapting to his new Rangers role.
Sterling must be a manager’s dream and he seems set to just take each game as it comes in what is set to be a congested fixture list:
“You have to be able to trust everyone in the squad. To be fair to us, we actually have a good squad.
“You can see by the results it’s not really impacting us having three games a week and we’ve been doing it since the start of the season really so nothing changes now.
“It’s just taking it game by game and just trying to rest, recover, repeat and keep on what we’ve been doing so far.”
With our next to fixtures being against Hearts and Kilmarnocck, Sterling’s pace, athleticism, intensity and drive would allow the likes of Diomande and Lawrence to play higher up the park and save their energy for creating chances or scoring goals.
As we have seen under Philippe Clement, very few players play almost every game but it wouldn’t be a surprise, after missing two games through suspension, to see Sterling being picked for the next series of games.
He has never let us down so far and there is a growing belief in the fan base that Sterling is exactly the type of player that we need to get us over the line this season.
