Ibrox View: Time for Kemar Roofe to earn full Rangers debut in clash v Kilmarnock
Rangers fans have seen very little of Kemar Roofe since he arrived from Anderlecht in a deal reportedly worth around £4million earlier this month.
The 27-year-old forward has only made a couple of appearances off the bench for Steven Gerrard and failed to put a foot wrong in either of those outings.
They were tough matches for Roofe to play in, too.
Gerrard threw the former Leeds and West Brom attacker onto the pitch with the game already won against St Johnstone while it was always going to be tough to try and turn around a turgid display in the 0-0 draw with Livingstone.
Rangers face Kilmarnock at Ibrox on Saturday and will be without the services of attacking midfielder Joe Aribo so this would be the perfect time for Gerrard to finally hand Roofe his full debut in behind striker Alfredo Morelos.
Last season, at Anderlecht, Roofe played a very deep-lying role for a forward, as shown below by his heatmap on WyScout.
The Walsall-born attacker managed to complete 72.2 per cent of the passes into the penalty area he attempted as well as having a through-ball accuracy of 45.5 per cent.
Roofe’s not really known as a creative player but with a prolific striker like Alfredo Morelos ahead of him, who loves to burst past defences and latch onto through-balls, the £4million new signing could provide the Colombian with plenty of opportunities based on those numbers.
Roofe’s only had one shot at goal since joining Rangers from Anderlecht and that came when he hit the target in the 3-0 win over St Johnstone.
It wasn’t the best of efforts by him but still, it was good for him to get on the pitch and get a taste for shooting at goal in a new league.
He’s hardly known as a prolific forward and more of a well-rounded one who can fire shots at goal and drop deep in order to play a crucial link-up role.
We’d like to see that against Kilmarnock this weekend after the dire attacking display against Livingstone and Roofe could be the key to unlocking Killie’s defence.
In other Rangers news, Alex Bruce has hailed this player’s start to the season.