WE LIKE SADIQ –IT’S ONGOING
Good news for Dorrans after knee injury scan
FROM BACK PAGE the Serie A side £2million and still has three years left on his deal at the Olympic Stadium but Roma boss Eusebio di Francesco is ready to let him go on his fourth loan stint.
Gerrard admitted the backline was his priority with Connor Goldson, Nikola Katic and Jon Flanagan all signed this summer.
But now the focus is at the top of the pitch with Alfredo Morelos the only recognised first-team striker at their Spanish preseason training camp.
Gerrard said: “We’re fans of Sadiq. He’d bring us a forward option – height, power, presence. He’s a player who works too hard.
“He does tons of running. He’s enthusiastic, the type of player who gives you just as much out of possession as he does in possession which is very important.
“We’ve got an interest but at the moment he’s still a Roma player. It’s ongoing. We have to be respectful and see how it progresses but he’s someone we like.
“There’s a group of names we’re monitoring and assessing in the forward areas. I’ve tried to go from back to front. Defence was definitely the priority.
“We needed bodies in the centre of defence and to give support in the full-back STEVEN GERRARD admitted his relief after scans showed Graham Dorrans’s knee injury isn’t as bad as was first feared.
The midfielder left the Rangers pre-season training camp on Thursday to see a specialist. And Ibrox boss Gerrard said: “There was a chance it could have been serious. That’s why we wanted to scan it and take areas. We’re close to being there defensively.
“When I took over we were heavy in the midfield areas so unless we can get someone in who’ll be better than what’s here we’re not in a mad rush to add, certainly in the central area.
“It’s a similar situation in the wide areas as it was in the full-back where we’ve got two strong options and a couple of young kids.
“We’ve got to be careful how we progress the kids and give them game time.
“If the right person becomes available then we’ll try to add but we’ve not got one name we’re chasing.”
Gerrard described fresh reports linking Gers with Liverpool’s wonderkid Ben Woodburn and Manchester City winger Brandon Barker as “speculation”.
He said: “Kent, Wilson, Barker, Jones – I don’t know how I’d fit them all in. We’ve heard them all – Skrtel, Leiva, Solanke, Kent, Wilson, Jones. I’m a fan of the names and speculation but that’s all it is just now.
“Dominic Solanke? Speculation. All I will say is we need more options in the forward areas.”
Ex-Reds team-mate Lucas Leiva definitely won’t make the move as Gerrard admits Lazio’s Brazilian star’s wages made it a non-starter. He added: “It is not possible.” no risks, especially at this time of the year, but it has come back good news.
“He will join back up with the squad when we get home. The physio will assess him and he will have a plan to try to get fit and catch up and be a part of it.
“He had a little bit of a feeling he wasn’t happy with so the safest thing was to get it checked out.”
But nobody knows the player’s character more than the man who decided to bring him to Ibrox and for boss Steven Gerrard that is what matters most.
Gerrard first came across Flanagan when he was emerging at Liverpool’s academy and they would soon become team-mates where they came so close to taking the title to Anfield for the first time in 24 years in 2014.
He got close enough to the 25-year-old and the Flanagan family to know the attack on girlfriend Rachael Wall was an isolated incident. After admitting