Philippe Clement knew that he was inheriting a few problems at Rangers but, after Cyriel Dessers was put on standby for the African Cup of Nations, he has an entirely new one to deal with.
Loan signing Fabio Silva could cut a lonely figure at shooting practice and, even before the Nigeria striker crisis broke, the Gers boss would have known that he needed more firepower.
Rangers are still in three competitions and won’t want a repeat of 2022 when we ran out of steam and strikers, if Cyriel Dessers is called up, these are the options that Clement has.
Rangers needed to sign support for Cyriel Dessers already
To a certain extent, nothing changes.
Danilo and Kemar Roofe might not play again this season given their respective injury problems.
The loss of Danilo in particular is a huge blow given how much better we look with him leading the line.
The squad already needed more depth up front, whether this is on loan or a permanent replacement is sought for Roofe now, something has to be done.
Repeat the Ross McCausland experiment
Zak Lovelace was really unlucky in that he had broken into the first-team, looked really exciting and then suffered a bad hamstring injury.
The minutes that Ross McCausland is getting could have been his.
More used to playing through the middle, by the time football returns after the break, he shouldn’t be far away from full fitness and help to provide flexibility across the forward line.
What I like about Lovelace is that he has a god given ability that terrorises defenders – raw pace.
Be creative with the formation
If Abdallah Sima wasn’t with Senegal, moving him centrally would be the obvious option.
What Rangers fans might see is an entirely different set up if Cyriel Dessers is missing.
Clement spoke about seeing Rabbi Matondo playing centrally in Belgium and Sam Lammers made his name as an out and out number nine.
You don’t get compared to Ruud van Nistelrooy playing anywhere else, although he might not be here for much longer.
The most likely, is that Rangers look for a loan deal with Cyriel Dessers only going to be missing for a few weeks and then look for more permanent options in the summer.
It would be nice to be surprised though.
