Four senior players left out of Rangers EL squad, 25-year-old started two of last three games
Andrew Firth, George Edmundson, Jordan Jones and Jermain Defoe have all been left out of the Rangers squad for the Europa League group stages.
UEFA’s website lists the group of players that Steven Gerrard has opted to select from for upcoming matches against Standard Liege, Lech Poznan and Benfica and those four players are listed as “not in current players list”.
Firth, 24, and Edmundson, 23, were expected to miss out but it’s quite a surprise that there’s no room for Jones, 25, and Defoe, 38.
Defoe has missed a good chunk of the start of the new season due to a hamstring injury but he is back to fitness now and was on the bench when Rangers won 2-0 against Ross County on Sunday.
However, Gerrard does have plenty of striker options available to him with Alfredo Morelos, Greg Stewart, Kemar Roofe and Cedric Itten all making the squad.
Jones’ omission is another shock.
The former Kilmarnock winger has started two of the Gers’ last three matches in all competitions and was on the bench for the win against Galatasaray last week as Gerrard’s side progressed to the Europa League.
As for Firth and Edmundson, their omissions were expected but Firth is Rangers’ third-choice goalkeeper and Edmundson has played twice in all competitions this season.
Rangers have a bit of a bloated squad, it would seem, based on the fact that four senior players have all failed to make Gerrard’s group stage squad.
It’s up to them to prove that the manager was wrong to do that in domestic fixtures over the coming months so that they can earn their spot in the squad for the knock-out stages, should the Gers qualify.
In other Rangers news, Mauricio Pochettino has been drooling over this “big” Rangers player.