McLeish View: ‘Horrible’ Kemar Roofe challenge v Slavia Praha can’t be defended
We’re delighted to welcome former Rangers manager Alex McLeish as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at Ibrox…
Alex McLeish has claimed that Kemar Roofe’s ‘horrible’ challenge on Slavia Praha goalkeeper Ondrej Kolar is hard to defend.
The Bears forward was given a straight red card in the Europa League second-leg tie against the Czech outfit after an extremely high challenge.
Roofe raced onto a loose ball on the edge of Slavia’s box and raised a leg to meet the bounce, though his follow-through caught Kolar flush in the face.
Speaking exclusively to Ibrox News, McLeish said: “It looked horrible, as well as the after pictures of the goalkeepers face. It paints a terrible picture for Kemar’s challenge.
“It’s hard to defend him. Do I think it was deliberate though? No. It’s the case of a centre forward going through and trying to get to the ball first.
“If there was a bit more distance then he would probably have been able to have knocked it down and gone by the goalkeeper but he was alert and right upon him, as a good goalkeeper should be, so he did everything right.
“I’m not making excuses for him, but a striker going through like that, he’s trying to bring it down and dispatch it and unfortunately the clash with the goalkeeper was just not what we want to see in football.”
Roofe’s challenge was incredibly reckless, that much is clear.
Whether the forward thought he could reach the ball before the goalkeeper or not, he has enough experience to know that hanging his foot that high while moving at speed could have caused unnecessary damage.
Roofe had only recently come off the substitutes’ bench and probably wanted to make an immediate impact to ensure Rangers’ progression to the next round, but he did so by needlessly endangering another player.
McLeish does a good job explaining the method behind his actions, but the end result just doesn’t justify his decision making at the time.
In other Rangers news, Rio Ferdinand has called out BBC pundit Michael Stewart after he refused to support Rangers in their allegations of racism against Slavia Prague.