The burning Rangers penalty-taker debate is still up in the air ahead of the Europa League fixture against Feyenoord on Thursday night.
The Gers skipper, James Tavernier, has been the designated spot-kick man for several seasons now. Across 2018/19, he was largely clinical from 12 yards, but this season has been much more of a struggle.
He currently has just a 40% conversion rate with two successes which both came at Ibrox against Aberdeen in September and three failures, which came against Progres, Feyenoord and Motherwell [Transfermarkt].
Following the most recent of those misses, when he struck a post against ‘Well, plenty of fans demanded he be stripped of the job going forward.
After the game, Steven Gerrard said he would speak the Tav about it [BBC Sport] before the skipper suggested he could retain the duties ahead of the League Cup semi-final against Hearts.
A decision is bound to have been made in-house, but as the Gers haven’t been awarded a penalty in their last five games, the fans are still in the dark as to who will step up next time around.
Thursday night’s clash at De Kuip is bound to be a game of fine margins, and therefore, this could have a real bearing on the result. Fortunately for Tav, when he missed at home against the Dutch, he was bailed out by Sheyi Ojo’s wonderful strike.
If the captain was to relinquish the responsibility, the obvious candidate would be Alfredo Morelos. The standard of his finishing has improved drastically over the last year and with 22 club goals already this season, his confidence is sky-high.
Other options include born-finisher Jermain Defoe or midfield maestro Steven Davis, although he recently missed a penalty for Northern Ireland against the Netherlands.
For now, an element of uncertainty remains for the fans, but the most important thing is that when the next one comes along, the taker sticks it away.
