Youssef Chermiti is surely losing grip on Rangers spot as Danny Rohl faces tough Hearts call
Danny Rohl is preparing to lead his Rangers team into their biggest game of the season this Sunday.
Rangers welcome Premiership leaders Hearts to Ibrox for a 4:30pm kick-off on Sunday, in what could go a long way to deciding who lifts the league title this season.
Rohl‘s side enter the game off the back of a frustrating 1-1 draw with Motherwell last time out, and are now five points behind Hearts.
As such, a win for Derek McKinnes’ men would potentially put them out of reach of Rangers this season, and depending on Celtic’s result away at Kilmarnock on Sunday, possibly even place one hand on the trophy.
Danny Rohl facing Youssef Chermiti, Hearts headache
Rangers are still paying for their poor start to the season under Russell Martin, with it likely being very different in terms of league standings had Rohl been in charge since the summer.
Alas, that wasn’t the case, but 2025-26 still could be a very special season for the Glaswegian giants, but they know that they’ll likely have to beat Hearts this weekend if that’s to be the case.
Thankfully, a number of previously under-performing players during the brief Martin era have been stepping up over the last few months, and Youssef Chermiti has been one of them.
The 21-year-old striker has been putting in improved performances under Rohl, and went through a particular purple patch between late December to early January, scoring a handful of goals.
However, the former Everton man has now gone six games in all competitions without finding the net, with has last coming when he bagged a brace against Celtic on 3 January.
And now, he has a number of contenders breathing down his neck to take his starting spot, and that might just be getting to him.
Ryan Naderi’s arrival has been met with much excitement, and the 22-year-old scored twice on his full Rangers debut against Queen’s Park on 8 February.
Meanwhile, Bojan Miovski has also started to show some goalscoring form recently, scoring in two of his last three games.
Hearts clash might be Chermiti’s final chance to keep starting place
So, with potentially the season riding on Sunday’s game against Hearts, this looks like being the most important team selection in Rohl’s Rangers career so far.
Therefore, he has to feel confident that the players he sends out there to do the job are ones he can trust, and in truth, he’s not really had a centre-forward who can come under that category this season.
However, Chermiti has been the best of a largely poor and frustrating group of strikers this term, and some of his performances have still been good despite the goals not being there.
Miovski and Naderi may be the more in-form strikers at the moment, but Chermiti has proven he can turn up in a big game like Celtic away and deliver the goods, and so he may still get the nod against Hearts.
But, a poor performance this weekend may just signal curtains for his place in the starting lineup for now.