Rangers take on rock-bottom Hearts in the Scottish Premiership today.
St Mirren midfielder, Stephen McGinn, has claimed that James Tavernier has been a ‘bigger miss’ for Rangers than their star man, Alfredo Morelos.
McGinn watched on in midweek as his St Mirren side suffered a narrow defeat to Rangers, who were without both their number right-back and striker.
Despite that, Steven Gerrard’s side did the job, with Jermain Defoe scoring the only goal of the game, and stand-in right-back, Jon Flanagan helping his team to a clean sheet.
Speaking to Sportscene (25/01/2020), McGinn explained why he felt that Tavernier is the ‘bigger miss’, and why someone like Defoe also misses out without the 28-year-old being in the starting XI.
“Well, you can say Morelos has had a brilliant season and he has been a huge player for Rangers,” McGinn told Sprortscene. “But Defoe was the match-winner the other night [against St Mirren].
“Part of the play, just taking the game in from the stands, I felt that Tavernier was a bigger miss than Morelos. But he’s such a source for Defoe, he thrives on chances and balls into the box.
“And Tavernier puts balls into the box more than anyone in that Rangers team. In the balance of the game, it felt like, I don’t mean to be disrespectful, you’ve not got him bombing [up and down] like a winger. Flanagan’s more like and out-and-out defender.”
The Gers are going to be without Morelos once again as they take on bottom-of-the-table Hearts in the Premiership on Sunday afternoon.
This could be a bit of a banana skin for the Gers because they did drop points at Tynecastle last term, and given Hearts’ current situation, the game isn’t going to be as easy as it looks.
Celtic opened up their lead to five points on Saturday, and whilst Gerrard’s men have played two games less, that scoreboard pressure can still cause its problems.
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