Danilo faces Lawrence Shankland embarrassment after Philippe Clement axes Cyriel Dessers for Rangers trip to Hearts
Philippe Clement has handed Danilo the responsibility of outshining opposite number Lawrence Shankland in one of his two changes for Rangers at Tynecastle, a move that comes with a risk to the forward.
The Brazilian comes into the starting line-up in place of Cyriel Dessers who was given the nod to face St Mirren at the weekend, amid heavy transfer links to the Jambos captain ahead of the January transfer window.
After the home captain scored at Ibrox in the close 2-1 Gers win on 29 October, and then again in the 3-1 victory at Hampden a week later, he has been repeatedly tipped as a potential answer to Clement’s worries up front.
Danilo may be struggling less than Dessers or Sam Lammers of the misfiring summer recruits, but even he has not proven beyond doubt that he is going to be a long-term success in Glasgow yet.
Whether Shankland is affordable, or whether Hearts could be convinced to let him go, remains to be seen, but if he outshines his Rangers counterpart in front of his own fans in this game it will only increase calls to make a push for him.
The Ibrox manager is surely right to have gone for Danilo in this game, as he has shown the most quality since his arrival from Feyenoord.
But it is now the 24-year-old’s responsibility not to be shown up by Shankland, as Dessers was badly in the previous SPFL meeting as everything the Scot did well was instantly compared to the former Cremonese man doing it badly.
With Clement having finally seen the merit of playing Todd Cantwell as a number 10 and Ross McCausland out wide there is surely a greater chance of Danilo getting the support he needs, not least with Abdallah Sima on the other side after two goals at the weekend, and Tom Lawrence further back.
If a Rangers striker is going to ensure he is in the goals it is likely going to come with those teammates behind him, so the game has been set up for the youngest of the three permanent summer forward signings to separate himself from the struggles of Lammers and Dessers.
Fail to do so with a potential replacement on the same pitch and it will be an embarrassment for him, and would threaten the Light Blues’ chances of recording an important win at Tynecastle, so the challenge has been laid down and he now needs to rise to it in a way that Gers strikers too often haven’t this term.
In other Rangers news, the manager “definitely” has a list of players he knows will “never make it” at Ibrox.