Gerrard drops Rangers lineup hint, suggests he’ll pick player he had to bench on Sunday

Follow us on Google Discover

Rangers head to Portugal to take on Braga on Wednesday evening.

Rangers boss Steven Gerrard has told The Scottish Sun that he wanted to start Florian Kamberi against St Johnstone – and is now likely to do so against Braga.

The Gers travelled to St Johnstone on Sunday, and with Callum Hendry’s goal leaving them 1-0 down at the break, Gerrard decided to make a bold change.

On came striker Kamberi for defender Andy Halliday, and he made a huge impact by smashing a half volley into the top corner of the net.

Kamberi then rolled a defender with a superb dummy to set up Joe Aribo to make it 2-1, and even had another goal ruled out for handball at 2-2.

Rangers couldn’t find a winner but Kamberi made a huge impact once again, having also impressed as a substitute against Braga last week.

With Alfredo Morelos missing the trip to Portugal on Wednesday, Kamberi is now the favourite to lead the line for Rangers – and Gerrard has commented on the situation.

Gerrard admitted that he wanted to start Kamberi against St Johnstone but knew he would need him for Wednesday’s game, and simply felt that he had to bring him on to change Sunday’s game.

Gerrard appeared to hint that Kamberi will now start on Wednesday, branding his display on Sunday ‘absolutely outstanding’, but warned him that he will have to do some ‘dirty, strong running’ and must ‘sacrifice himself’ for the team in a tricky away game.

“I wanted to start Flo on Sunday, but obviously the risk of him playing a full game and not being fresh on Wednesday was one that I was juggling with.” said Gerrard. “When we went 1-0 down, I needed to twist and I did that. I thought Flo was absolutely outstanding. On that performance, he plays, for sure. You can’t ignore that. It was some impact. Flo was man of the match and everyone should have been talking about him.”

“Can he step up to the plate for us in Braga? On the evidence of that, yeah, for sure. It will be a different type of game. Flo is going to have to be selfless and do some real dirty, strong running and sacrifice himself for the team at times. But you can see that if he gets an opportunity he knows where the back of the net is, which is a really big positive,” he added.