Kemar Roofe may have started last game under Philippe Clement at Rangers as new update shared at Ibrox
Rangers will be missing at least four players when they host Hearts in the Scottish Premiership on Sunday, including Kemar Roofe and Philippe Clement’s update suggests he may well have started his last game at Ibrox.
The Gers boss shared in his pre-match press conference, via the official club Twitter, on 27 October that all of Roofe, Tom Lawrence and Dujon Sterling are out of action for Sunday’s game at Ibrox (29 October).
Borna Barisic, who missed the Europa League draw at Sparta Prague after limping off against Hibs last weekend, also remains a doubt ahead of the Sunday 29 October visit of the Jambos, but Jose Cifuentes is set to return to training.
Roofe has endured a rather disappointing campaign so far this season, scoring just once in his six Scottish Premiership games – such form which became a running theme in the attack that ultimately cost Beale his job.
And speaking ahead of the Hearts game regarding the 30-year-old, it sounded as if Clement isn’t particularly pleased with his situation, and his comments suggest the Rangers fans may not see Roofe for a while yet again.
He said: “Kemar [Roofe] will not be available for the weekend – next week we need to take a good look at how he is getting on and how we bring him back long-term.”
The fact that Clement refers to the “long-term” certainly suggests that Roofe’s latest injury trouble will be a long one and that spells bad news for his future opportunities under the Belgian coach, who will be looking to find a consistent formula for his new team in the coming weeks.
Also, the underlying stats for the 30-year-old don’t make for pleasing reading and it may point to Clement axing him for Saturday’s crucial tie.
As per SofaScore, Roofe is so far not performing the job he’s been expected to, registering a disappointing 0.2 shots on target per game, 0.7 shots per game and hasn’t even missed a big chance this season which highlights that he’s become an ineffective presence in front of goal.
In fact, in his last start, against St Mirren on 8 October, he failed to register a single shot on target, a single shot off target and barely touched the ball with just eight touches all game, completing two passes in his 61 minutes on the pitch which is incredibly woeful.
If Clement is to get this Rangers group firing on all cylinders again, they’d need to start scoring goals and it appears Roofe isn’t the man to lead the attack in the coming weeks given his disastrous numbers.
It could well be that his last start against St Mirren may well be his last, for a while.
In other Rangers news, one inconsistent Ibrox defender must improve under Clement all be shown the Auchenhowie exit door in January.