McCallister hopeful that Kent competition can drive champions
RANGERS assistant Gary McAllister believes Ibrox manager Steven Gerrard now has a major selection headache up front after Ryan Kent made his return from injury.
And he is hopeful that will allow the Scottish champions to build on their emphatic 6-1 cinch Premiership win over Motherwell last weekend and score more goals when Ross County visit Govan tomorrow.
Kent, who had been sidelined with a hamstring problem for nearly two months, came on in the second half of the 1-1 draw with Brondby in Denmark in the Europa League on Thursday night.
Gerrard, whose men are four points clear at the top of league table, can now field Joe Aribo, Jermain Defoe, Ianis Hagi, Kent, Alfredo Morelos, Kemar Roofe, Fashion Sakala and Scott Wright in his front three.
McAllister knows that is an enviable position for his old Liverpool team-mate to be in going into a meeting with County, who beat Dundee 5-0 at Dens Park in their last outing, at Ibrox tomorrow afternoon.
“In the last couple of days in the training amongst the squad Ryan has looked really refreshed,” he told Rangers TV. “He has been out a while. Getting on the pitch last night was a big boost for him, but certainly for us. I thought he looked really sharp.
“Kemar Roofe looked sharp as well. But Ianis came on and gave us that wee bit of quality and eye for a pass. Obviously, the goal was superb, it was a
great goal and a great finish. It was nice to see.
“We can’t be reliant on a starting XI. The XI who finished at Fir Park and won 6-1 deserved to go again, although Calvin (Bassey) was left out and Borna (Barisic) came in.
“But we need 20 plus players. We do have two quality players in nearly every position and we have got to utilise this squad The freshness towards the end of the Brondy game certainly worked.
“The manager has got a number of options up front now. Kenty has got those minutes under his belt. So we go
into Sunday with a full squad. Jacko (Ryan Jack) is getting closer and closer so that is another boost for the squad as well. We look forward to getting back to Ibrox.”
McAllister is keen to see Rangers reproduce their Motherwell display against Malky Mackay’s side – and avoid falling behind for the fifth game in a row.
“County will come to Ibrox and try to frustrate and be organised,” he said. “What we have got to guard against is losing this first goal. It seems to be a wee bit of a habit at the moment. If we can get our noses in front early then we have
got to go and try and score some goals. We have got to go all guns blazing.
“We do that by sticking to the game plan, sticking to the things we do really well, and by that I mean getting to five, 10, 15 passes and then moving forward when it suits us. That is what we have got to really build on from the Motherwell game.
“Our game is based around keeping good possession of the football. I thought for big parts of the Motherwell game in the second half we controlled possession and the way we chose to go forward at the right moments was perfect.”