Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
A SMILING ASSASSIN
Lomas: Deadly Defoe wants to be No1
THE Rangers players call him “Uncle” and Steven Gerrard admitted he has a crucial role to play as the father figure in the Ibrox dressing room.
But Steve Lomas insists Jermain Defoe will still believe he is the daddy of all the Light Blues strikers and should be the No1 choice. Lomas watched Defoe roll back the years to net his landmark 300th club goal against Livingston on Sunday – 20 years after playing alongside the veteran striker when he scored his very first in the claret and blue of West Ham United.
Ex-st Johnstone boss Lomas, inset, knew the pint-sized poacher was a star in the making and backed him to play at the top for another couple of years.
And Lomas believes he could play a crucial role in Rangers’ title bid this season rather than just a bit-part player who settles for being an off-field influence.
Lomas – who spent five years with Defoe in east London – said: “Jermain can go on and play at least until he’s 40 and the good thing is with Rangers in Europe they have a lot of games and they’ve got strikers to choose from. “I don’t want to be disrespectful to Livingston but in that type of fixture at Ibrox they can play JD and give Alfredo Morelos a rest. But Jermain won’t want to settle just for that and he’ll think he’s the best striker at the club.
“If he played 30 games then Jermain would back himself to score 20 goals but even if gets you 10 in 20 appearances then that’s invaluable.
“It allows Morelos, Roofe and Itten to be rotated and they haven’t had that luxury for a long time.
“And if Morelos picked up an injury then you’ve got Defoe to come in whereas in the last couple of years if Morelos was out it would have been catastrophic.
“They have relied heavily on Alfredo Morelos so keeping JD around is great and you hope the younger ones are looking at him and saying ‘How’s he living his life to be able to play at 38?’ “He’s great for Rangers to have around and it’s funny because his 300th goal was just as crucial as his first because on Sunday it gave Rangers breathing space while 20 years ago he got us the win.
“We went to Walsall on a rainy night and it was a typical away League Cup tie against lower league opposition where it was tough.
“The Bescot Stadium is just one of those tough venues and it was heading for a goalless draw until he came off the bench and scored the winner with six minutes left. When he comes off the bench he’s ready – it doesn’t take him long.”