Coulibaly must show mettle to stand out from crowd

THE tone has changed somewhat around Lassana Coulibaly. Early on in the season, the Rangers midfielder, looking every inch a cult hero in the making, was rated by manager Steven Gerrard as just one of a number on-loan players he would love to keep permanently.

Ovie Ejaria, of course, was another. As he settles into life on loan at Reading after jumping ship to go back to parent club Liverpool, Coulibaly now finds himself struggling to establish himself as much more than a bit-part player in an everevolving Ibrox squad.

Ask Gerrard now about signing the man he once described as a ‘destroyer’ on a long-term deal and the talk drifts towards how the fee French club Angers would demand looks like being a bit of a stumbling block.

Gerrard insists he hasn’t given up on the Malian, who has managed just 18 minutes of league football since the winter break. Far from it. There is a sense, though, that the 22-year-old will have to show something out of the ordinary to prevent a once-special relationship just fizzling out.

Competition for places in midfield is particularly fierce. In summer, Coulibaly had the likes of Scott Arfield, Graham Dorrans, Ross McCrorie, Ryan Jack, Ejaria and Andy Halliday looking to join him in the engine room.

Since then, Steven Davis and Glen Kamara have signed, with American recruit Matt Polster, nominally a full-back, also capable of playing in a holding role.

Gerrard insists he still sees a role for Coulibaly, but the issue of so many players looking to fill three positions at most is clearly problematic for more than just the manager.

‘We still very much rate Lassana,’ said Gerrard. ‘What we need to get out there right now is that the competition for midfield places is really tense here.

‘Lassana, in the first four or five months of the season, was very consistent. He had a couple of injuries and a family issue that we believe hit him a bit.

‘He came off his form for a little while, but, in the last couple of weeks, he’s shown signs of how he was at the beginning of the season.

‘There’s certainly a place and a part for Lassana to play between now and the end of the season.’

While Coulibaly has become something of a forgotten man amid this joust for jerseys, there has been considerable focus on the return of Steven Davis. Aged 34, the Northern Ireland international arrived in January having played just a handful of times for Southampton this season.

His debut ended with him being removed in a 2-1 defeat at Kilmarnock. He has been in and out of the side since and it does not seem uncharitable to state that he has shown little to make himself a first-pick.

Gerrard, however, insists he has no doubts over Davis or 36-year-old Jermain Defoe, another experienced player signed with very little first-team football behind him this term.

‘Both Steven and Jermain, with all due respect, have missed an awful lot of football,’ he said. ‘They’ve come in and the intensity of the league, the intensity of the games and how we want to play, means it was always going to take a bit of time to get them up to speed.

‘We have every confidence that, in the coming weeks, you will see the best of Steven Davis.’