Would Lafferty signing signal a change to two up top?

As Rangers continue to barter with Hearts, would signing Kyle Lafferty mean a change to two up front?

Steven Gerrard has kept it strict with the one striker during his early days at Ibrox. However, the signing of Lafferty could signal an adjustment in that regard.

Should Lafferty sign, there’s no way he would want to come and act as a bench-warmer to Alfredo Morelos. The Northern Ireland star has stated how he loves playing games at Hearts. This means Rangers would have to find a consistent place for the front-man in the side.

However, Morelos has to stay in the side. With the form the Colombian is in, any swift drop to the bench would be disastrous for morale. The man known as El Buffalo has been known to be a hothead on occasion, and Gerrard could do with avoiding needless confrontation by dropping him.

Umar Sadiq is another who certainly didn’t come to Ibrox to watch Rangers play. The forward is at the club on a year-long loan deal from Serie A side Roma.

Sadiq apparently offers something different to Morelos. However, we’ve yet to get a strong look at the former NEC Breda striker. Playing two up top would allow the forward to get more game-time as rotation would kick in to gear.

Of course, Gerrard may just look across the city at what Brendan Rodgers does with his trio of strikers and follow suit. Despite having Moussa Dembele, Odsonne Edouard, and Leigh Griffiths, Rodgers continues to play with just one up top.

It’s not out of the question Gerrard does the same. However, he did come out at the start of the season and say it was difficult to keep three goalkeepers happy when there’s one spot up for grabs. Whether he would want to create the same situation up top is debatable.

A striker of lesser-quality and calibre of Lafferty wouldn’t create this type of problem. However, Rangers want quality up top to take a title fight to Celtic. Lafferty has the pedigree to make that happen.

There is also the debate that it could effect the midfield balance that Gerrard spoke about several days ago.

Nobody knows whether Rangers would switch to a front two, but it’s easy to see where disgruntlement problems could occur if they didn’t.

Regardless, developments on Lafferty will heat up, and Rangers fans will watching closely to see if they can get their man.