While many would blame Russell Martin, the primary reason behind Rangers’ catastrophic start to this season is poor recruitment.
In attacking areas, Cyriel Dessers, Hamza Igamane and Václav Černý, who scored 63 goals between them last season, have all departed, replaced by Djeidi Gassama, Bojan Miovski and Youssef Chermiti, who are simply not of the same quality.
Elsewhere, Joe Rothwell has been cast aside since the appointment of Danny Röhl, while defence remains a major issue too, with Max Aarons and Jayden Meghoma appearing out of their depth, while a solid and reliable central partnership is yet to be unearthed.
So, when the Gers return to action against Livingston after the international break, should Röhl ditch an error-prone defender and begin to entrust his “colossus”?
Nasser Djiga's Rangers career so far
Nasser Djiga arrived at Rangers with a pretty decent reputation; a Burkina Faso international joined on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers, who had signed him for around £10m from Crvena zvezda as recently as January.
Well, he certainly did not make the ideal start to life in Glasgow, sent off on his home Premiership debut during a dismal 1-1 draw with Dundee at Ibrox.
Just ten days later, Djiga was then at the scene of a catastrophic error.
The centre-back seemingly denounced any responsibility as the ball bobbled through the heart of the Rangers defence, allowing Romeo Vermant to open the scoring, the first of nine goals Club Brugge would bag across the two legs of the harrowing and ignominious Champions League play-off tie.
Djiga thereby found himself out of the team for a few weeks thereafter, albeit he has been reintegrated for recent matches by Röhl, after he switched to a back three, requiring a third member of this back-line alongside Derek Cornelius and John Souttar.
Nevertheless, he has not impressed, with the Scotsman labelling him ‘unconvincing’ following Rangers’ recent Europa League defeat to Roma, having previously outlined that the defender endured a ‘really difficult’ afternoon against Celtic at Hampden in the League Cup semi-finals a few days earlier.
That has sparked suggestions that his season-long loan could be terminated as early as January, a scenario that could well be sped up if Röhl gives one of Rangers’ forgotten summer signings an opportunity to stake a claim.
Rangers' forgotten colossus deserves a chance
Considering Rangers signed 12 players in the summer, a few of these new recruits have been overlooked and forgotten about.
Well, this is certainly the case when it comes to centre-back Emmanuel Fernandez.
The 24-year-old had already bounced around numerous lower league English clubs, Sheppey United and Spalding United to name just two, before making the move north of the border from Peterborough United, following an outstanding campaign in EFL League One.
He cost a reported £3.5m, a not insignificant fee for Rangers, but has barely featured for the Glasgow giants.
Fernandez made his debut against Alloa Athletic in the League Cup, marking the occasion with this towering header in front of the Broomloan Road Stand, starting at St Mirren the following weekend, but seeing a mere one-minute cameo at Easter Road since 24 August, an unused substitute on 12 occasions in total.
Upon his arrival, then-manager Martin labelled Fernandez a “commanding defender” who boasts a “strong physical presence”, while Darragh MacAnthony, Chairman of his former club Peterborough, described him as a “colossus”, adding that the “gentle giant” is a “great organiser and talker”.
So, let’s assess his statistics from EFL League One last season.
Goals
5
2nd
Tackles (per 90)
1.24
63rd
Interceptions (per 90)
0.91
46th
Clearances (per 90)
6.83
19th
Passing accuracy %
85.35%
20th
Passes (per 90)
65.93
5th
Aerial duels won (per 90)
4
27th
Aerial duels won %
62.24%
25th
Ground duels won (per 90)
2.87
35th
Note: rankings are defenders only.
As the table documents, despite only seeing 2,380 minutes of action out of a possible 4,140, Fernandez boasted pretty impressive statistics at Posh last season.
He scored five goals, including this rocket at Exeter City, while also ranking highly when it came to clearances, passing and aerial duels, helped by the fact that he is 194 cms (6 ft 4 in) tall when it comes to the latter.
So, given a chance, Fernandez could really flourish at Ibrox, hoping to replicate the career Calvin Bassey enjoyed in Glasgow.
When Bassey arrived at Rangers from English football in 2020, costing a mere £230k in compensation, he had never previously played senior first-team football, having merely plied his trade in Leicester City’s youth teams.
Initially signed as Borna Barišić’s left-back deputy, Bassey would ultimately become the club’s best central defender, a key figure in Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s team that won the Scottish Cup and reached the Europa League Final in 2021/22.
That summer, the Nigerian international was sold to Ajax for around £20m, which remains the club’s biggest sale of all-time.
Fernandez is certainly more experienced now than Bassey was when his Rangers career began five years ago, given that he has a full season in EFL League One under his belt, a division that Global Football Rankings believes is comparable in level to the Scottish Premiership, just eight spots below.
Thus, considering the scarcity of other options, especially with Röhl electing to deploy a back three, Fernandez certainly deserves an opportunity to stake a claim, likely to prove more reliable than Djiga in the long run.
Bassey emerged from obscurity and the periphery to flourish at Ibrox – why can’t Fernandez now do the same?
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