GOALS ON TAP

Gerrard delighted to see Roofe’s goalscoring repertoire combine the simple with the spectacular

GARY LinekeR offered a round of applause on Twitter. Piers Morgan asked if it was the greatest goal ever scored. When kemar Roofe scored that europa League screamer in Liege, he justified a Rangers spend of £3.5million with one swing of his right boot.

Steven Gerrard described it as the best hit he’d witnessed live. Yet for all the plaudits which followed the goal of 2020, the ibrox boss is pleased to see his summer signing show the other side of his game.

To win the l eague Rangers need strikers to be on hand for tap-ins as well. And while Roofe’s three goals against Motherwell and St Johnstone were relatively straightforward affairs, they pleased his manager almost as much as the wonderstrike in Belgium.

‘ Sometimes when you have got strikers, they (tap-ins) are the best goals for me because that is what you want them to do,’ said Gerrard.

‘Obviously kemar has scored some bangers this season from outside the box, which is pleasing and i am sure they will be his favourites.

‘But, for me, when you have got a no 9 and you are taking shots, it is important you are in the right place.’

Roofe will never claim an easier goal than the opener he scored against St Johnstone. A simple tap-in after keeper Zander Clark spilled a ianis Hagi strike, it was no more than six yards out.

‘it bounced off the keeper and if he is not there then it is cleared away,’ said Gerrard.

‘i think that is just as important a goal l as scoring from outside the box, so it was really pleasing to see. We altered his role on Wednesday night and he was in a great place. We wanted to bring more technical players in to try and open them m up and that has worked.’

A striker who tends to drift in from wide positions, Roofe was asked to take up a central role with Alfredo Morelos on the bench. With nine goals in nine league starts — 11 in all — he is shaping up already as one of the signings of the season. And Gerrard suspects there is more to come.

‘He is certainly playing well, he is enjoying i t and he i s happy,’ said Gerrard. ‘He is fit. When he first came, he was carrying a few niggles but they are clear at the moment. Touch wood he stays fit and if he does then he will be a real handful at this level.

‘ He works his socks off, he does everything out of possession that you ask of him, he is clever and bright and he can create and score. He has got the mentality that i really like.’

Rangers have players operating at the level required to win a league title. Fears of a mental wobble after the Betfred Cup defeat to St Mirren have been allayed by a comeback win against Motherwell and a comfortable victory in Perth.

Joe Aribo has overcome injury to prove himself one of the cleverest players in the country. Pound for pound the £50,000 paid to Dundee for Glen kamara looks one of the best bargains of recent times.

The Finn claimed his second Rangers goal at McDiarmid Park by running on to Aribo’s weighted through ball and finishing like a striker.

‘i can’t take the credit for someone making a fantastic run and finishing a goal like that,’ grinned his manager. ‘i can encourage midfielders to join in, of course, and we can give them a platform to do it. But they have to carry it out, so Glen deserves all the credit for that.

‘But he’s just a fabulous player. He’s clever, he can get goals, he can get assists. He had an effort that hit the roof of the net just before.

‘What we do is give them licence to go and express themselves, so it’s very pleasing to see.’

kamara is a target for Brighton in the January window with Rangers keen to tie him down to a new deal. ‘ no comment on that,’ added Gerrard.

Hibs are one of only two Premiership teams to have taken points f rom Rangers, a 2-2 draw at easter Road in September as testing a day as the league leaders have faced this season.

Unbeaten in their last nine games, Hibs travel to Glasgow in a mood of cautious optimism. optimism.ptim ‘ ‘We We don’t look back,’ said Gerrard. d ‘W ‘ We d don’t ’t l look kb back kb because you can’t change anything.

‘All that game tells us is that we are going to be in for a tough test. They are in a good place, they have got good players in good form and it is set up to be a fantastic game.

‘We felt hard done by in terms of not winning that game with the chances that we had and what we created on the day.

‘it will be a tough test at ibrox but we are going into it in a good place.’

Christian Doidge scored Hibernian’s second goal that day, the striker’s suspension after a disputed red card in midweek almost as big a blow to th the visitors i it as the th potential t ti l absence b of no 1 keeper Ofir Marciano.

Despite a 100-per- cent record at ibrox, Gerrard continues to preach caution. Reaching the halfway point of the season with one hand on the Premiership trophy, Rangers have won nothing yet.

‘We can discuss our form at ibrox come the end of the season because there are a lot of games to play there,’ he noted.

‘ Form is t emporary so it is important that we keep doing the right things.’