Rangers have suffered more than most teams this season with injuries and Rabbi Matondo’s length absence was sorely felt.
For the first time since moving to Ibrox, he looked to be ready to be a key player in the squad only to then miss most of the next three months.
Rangers need forwards who can contribute goals and, as shown against Copenhagen, Rabbi Matondo demonstrated that he has rediscovered his form from the beginning of the season but, it hasn’t just been down to the player being fit again.
Rangers can have Abdallah Sima answer in Rabbi Matondo
Part of Philippe Clement’s philosophy seems to be getting to know all his players well, not just what makes them tick but their individual games.
Meetings were held in Spain with the squad with the Gers boss clearly making an impression on Matondo who, speaking to Rangers TV, explained the hard work he has been doing to improve:
“It’s always nice to score. The manager always says there is no friendly games so it’s always nice to score in any game. It felt nice and hopefully many more.”
And, on whether or not he had been working on his finishing:
“Yeah, 100 per cent. Even in the off-break we had, I had a few sessions outside of Rangers.
“Then coming back in the manager telling me ‘this is something you need to work on, keep working on it’. It’s obviously paid off for today’s game and I’ll keep working on it and hopefully many more goals.”
Before signing for Rangers, Rabbi Matondo enjoyed his best seasons in senior football playing of the left-hand side.
A position previously dominated by Ryan Kent, rightly or wrongly, and now Abdallah Sima.
With Sima’s African Cup of Nations enforced absence, Matondo should be getting a run of games in his favoured position and there is no reason why he can’t keep his place when the Senegal international returns.
Sima can easily be moved to the right-hand side and, if anything, would see the forward line strengthened by having our two best goalscoring wingers on the park at the same time.
Matondo looked the most likely to score against Hertha Berlin and did well against Copenhagen too and his return to form couldn’t come at a better time.
