Fashion Sakala wasn’t the greatest player technically, but he still managed to post a respectable goals and assists ratio for Rangers due to his pace, a quality that Philippe Clement has to prioritise in January.
When Danilo, Scott Wright and Ross McCausland were all on the pitch against Hearts, the Gers boss had the most dynamic front three available to him and they caused problems.
If Rangers can find players for Philippe Clement with the same physical attributes but who are also capable of bringing a greater level of technique, then nerve wrecking games like the win against Hearts should be a lot less frequent.
Rangers need to find more players with pace for Philippe Clement
When Ryan Kent and Sakala were allowed to leave Rangers in the summer, the thought was that Michael Beale would replace them.
Sam Lammers is a number ten, not a winger, he also isn’t blessed with pace.
Cyriel Dessers replaced Alfredo Morelos but, somehow, we’ve managed to replace one immobile striker with another.
It must be great to have a striker who can get away from a defender when played in behind a defence.
Danilo is someone we can pin our hopes on though.
If Rangers are to improve then having Danilo leading the line has to be Philippe Clement’s go to game plan.
Rangers tried to sell Wright and for all that McCausland looks promising, he is too inexperienced to throw completely in at the deep-end.
Clement just doesn’t have the depth that he should have considering how well backed Michael Beale was in the summer.
Yes, there are injuries but, outside of Abdallah Sima and Rabbi Matondo, Rangers have almost no threat or pace in wide areas.
This leaves Philippe Clement with very little room for error in January in that he has to get it right first time.
No doubt he will have a list of names who he might want to target, and if he solves a problem that three other managers have failed to address in recent years, then he might just succeed where they have failed.
By winning trophies, consistently.
