Jon Flanagan has suffered a hernia problem so will Steven Gerrard’s Scottish Premiership outfit Rangers turn to Martin Olsson?
If Rangers fans thought they had problems at left-back before, a penny for their thoughts now.
According to the Daily Mail (5 September, page 96), Jon Flanagan is set for an extended period on the sidelines as he needs an operation to fix a hernia problem.
Whatever you think of the former Liverpool defender, who continues to look very much like a square peg in a round hole as a right-footed left-back, Flanagan remains a key player for Steven Gerrard having featured in four Europa League qualifiers this season.
A lengthy spell out of the side means Rangers will instead have to rely on the famously unreliable Borna Barisic, who still divides opinion despite boasting arguably the most cultured left peg in Gerrard’s squad, and the hard-working if limited Andy Halliday.
The latter, after all, is a central midfielder by trade, converted into a full-back by necessity alone.
Now, the transfer window might have slammed shut on Monday but there’s nothing to stop Gerrard scouring the shelves for free agents if he feels that his Rangers side are worryingly short in a key position.
The Sun (9 June, page 61) reported that the Glasgow giants were interested in veteran Swede Martin Olsson and the fact that he is still a free agent, two months after his Swansea City contract expired, cannot have passed them by.
At 31, Olsson would not be a long-term solution but that’s not what Gerrard needs. The former Blackburn and Norwich flyer, with 48 international caps to his name, still has plenty of pace and he’s not short of quality in the final third either. Olsson loves nothing more than racing onto a through ball and whipping first-time balls across the face of goal.
Jermain Defoe, the arch goal poacher, would be licking his lips at the prospect of this kind of service.
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