Nedim Bajrami gives Danny Rohl major Rangers headache after Livingston cameo
Sunday was an afternoon Rangers will want to forget, must one that Danny Rohl’s side must learn from.
Rangers slipped on a Livingston-sized banana skin on Sunday afternoon, with the Scottish Premiership’s bottom side holding Gers to a 2-2 draw.
Livi were 2-0 to the good thanks to two well-taken goals from Brooklyn Kabongolo and Lewis Smith respectively, before Cristian Montano’s red card in the 60th minute changed the complexity of the game entirely.
Emmanuel Fernandez and Mikey Moore were able to salvage a point with two late goals, but Rohl‘s side will’ve still left West Lothian with a huge sense of frustration with their performance, as their title hopes took a dent.
Nedim Bajrami was an inspired substitution by Danny Rohl
With 10 minutes of the game to play on Sunday, Rohl threw caution to the wind and turned to some out of favour options from his bench in a desperate attempt to rescue the situation.
Thelo Aasgaard was one of those to be introduced as the clock ticked down, as was versatile attacking midfielder Nedim Bajrami.
The 26-year-old Albanian international was widely tipped to leave Ibrox in the recent winter transfer window, but Rohl blocked any potential exit for him, and that didn’t appear to make much sense at the time.
Indeed, Livingston was only his 12th Premiership appearance of the season, culminating in a mere 320 minutes of league football in 2025-26.
And with new additions such as Andreas Skov Olsen and Ryan Naderi not seemingly helping his chances of more regular football for Gers, he looked set to see out the remainder of the season in the Glasgow cold.
However, he may just have rekindled his Rangers career on Sunday, and given Rohl a major selection dilemma to contend with too, as he played a big hand in both of Gers’ goals despite only being introduced on 79 minutes.
It was he who won the ball back on the right flank before his ball into the box found it’s way to Fernandez to smash home Gers’ first goal, showing excellent hunger and work rate.
And he also put the ball on a plate for James Tavernier to deliver the cross that Moore headed home for the equaliser, in what turned out to be a brilliant decision from Rohl to throw him into the fray.
Could Bajrami be Rangers’ wildcard against Celtic?
Next up for Rangers is the small matter of an Old Firm derby clash with Celtic on Sunday, with it being perhaps the biggest game between these two Glaswegian rivals for some time.
As such, Rohl is going to have to get his team selection bang on, and that could involve dropping one or two underperforming starting XI regulars, one of which could be Djeidi Gassama.
The Frenchman hasn’t been his usual impactful best in recent weeks, and has provided just one assist from his last five appearances in all competitions.
So, has Bajrami’s highly encouraging cameo against Livingston done enough for him to win favour back with Rohl, and might the Rangers boss now be even thinking about a surprise inclusion in his XI for Celtic?
For even more Rangers news and opinions, head over to Football Insider.