Scott Arfield’s suspension throws up a problem scenario for Steven Gerrard ahead of the next couple of fixtures.
Rangers host Aberdeen on Wednesday night and will be without their star-signing. The former Burnley man has made a terrific 24 Rangers appearances this season, and was coming onto a real game.
Yet, his red card picked up at Tynecastle was reckless, and leaves Gerrard with a selection issue for the visit of Derek McInnes’ side.
There is the small chance that Rangers appeal the decision. As it was a straight red card, Rangers have grounds to appeal. During live BT Sport coverage, Rob McLean revealed a secondary opinion of a professional referee deemed the incident as a yellow card. Gerrard, however, could see why it was given.
So it looks like the club are going to have to deal with having the Canadian out for a couple of matches. What should the solution be?
There’s one that’s glaringly obvious.
The obvious solution?
Ovie Ejaria fancies himself as a creative spark, and came close to netting at Tynecastle this afternoon also. Pushing him into the number 10 role and having the likes of Ryan Jack and Ross McCrorie in the other two slots would seem ideal.
Borna Barisic is back from injury and could slot into his place at left-back. This could give Andy Halliday the chance to slot back into his midfield role alongside Jack also.
What may concern Gerrard, however, is that the club don’t have a natural number 10 outside of Arfield. Eros Grezda and Glenn Middleton are both untested in that position, but the former did impress in an unusual role down the left yesterday.
Rangers’ central-midfielders, however, tend to be holding ones. Gerrard surely, however, wouldn’t want to change his system to accommodate one line-up change.
The Gers gaffer does have the options at his disposal to mix things up tactically. Rangers, however, are playing in a style that seriously suits their game. A change of formation certainly wouldn’t be ideal at this stage.
The likely scenario seems to be to push Ejaria further forward and bring in one of either McCrorie or Halliday into the midfield. Trying to guess a Gerrard team, however, has proved embarrassingly difficult for us in the past.
What would you do on Wednesday night when Aberdeen come calling?
