New faces leave Gerrard spoilt for choice
● Candeias left out of squad as manager hails swift impact of summer signings
ST JOSEPH’S v RANGERS
Europa League, first qualifying round Victoria Stadium, Gibraltar Today, 4:55pm
Live on Premier 1
Rangers manager Steven Gerrard admits his summer arrivals have given him some positive selection headaches ahead of their European opener.
Greg Stewart and Sheyi Ojo scored in a 5-0 friendly win over Oxford United on Sunday and Joe Aribo showed good running power.
Jake Hastie displayed some good touches and delivered some decent crosses while Jordan Jones and George Edmundson are also vying for competitive debuts.
Gerrard has left experienced players, such as Daniel Candeias, out of his Europa League squad for the first qualifying round because of Uefa limits around numbers and homegrown players.
He will continue to pore over his team selection ahead of the first leg against St Joseph’s in Gibraltar this evening.
Gerrard said on the club’s website: “I thought in the main they were all very positive with their debuts. A lot of them are here with us and should play some part.
“We are very pleased with not just Sunday’s performance, but how they have all settled in really quickly.
“Andy [Halliday] and I were speaking in the car on the way here about how they have started very strongly, and straight away they have given me big decisions to make.
“As the weeks go by, sometimes I’m going to have to make big Alfredo Morelos did not feature in Rangers’ pre-season win over Oxford on Sunday but manager Steven Gerrard revealed he was available for the trip to Gibraltar following a minor groin injury. Speculation has continued to surround the Colombian’s future but Gerrard insists there have been no enquiries about his top goalscorer, who lost his place to Jermain Defoe after a four-game ban late last
season.
Gibraltar’s Victoria Stadium hosts all of the country’s top-level football and Celtic found it a difficult surface as they crashed to a shock defeat by Lincoln Red Imps three years ago. A new surface was installed in January with the help of a FIFA grant so Rangers should find it comparable to the likes of Hamilton and Kilmarnock.
George Edmundson, Joe Aribo, Jake Hastie, Greg Stewart, Sheyi Ojo and Jordan Jones are all in line to make their Rangers debuts in Gibraltar. Edmundson and Aribo are not as far advanced in their pre-season while Stewart played for an hour on Sunday, making him unlikely to start. But wide players Hastie and Jones could
feature. calls and leave big players out who are good players. But we are hoping this is going to be a 60-game season.”
Candeias scored on Sunday and made 52 appearances last season and Gerrard reassured the Portuguese winger he still has a role to play this term.
“It’s just a numbers game,” he said. “You can swap and change – I’m not going to make a big thing of it.
“It is just the way it is when you have big numbers, big squads, big players and competition for places.
“It is only normal from week to week that it changes on who is in and who is out. Daniel is a good player who played a lot of games for me last year and I predict the same could happen again this year.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he is involved in the competition in the next round if we are to progress.”
Alfredo Morelos travelled after missing the Oxford clash with a groin strain.
Gerrard said: “I think we have to think about where he is at – he has missed probably a week now and he only played probably 20 or 25 minutes against Mansfield, so this would be his second game and we will have to be careful with him.”
Full-back Jon Flanagan is missing after undergoing hernia surgery which will sideline him for about three weeks, while Jamie Murphy will face Ayr United in a friendly as he works his way back from a serious knee injury.
Midfielder Scott Arfield will not feature in Gibraltar having just returned following international duty with Canada. The outof-favour Graham Dorrans, Jason Holt, Joe Dodoo, Eros Grezda and Kyle Lafferty are also absent while Jordan Rossiter has joined Fleetwood Town on loan.
Raul Procopio has La Liga playing experience with Cadiz and briefly managed the club in 2008 after former Airdrie, Kilmarnock and Raith Rovers player Antonio Calderon was sacked towards the end of the season. He subsequently managed in the Spanish lower leagues before moving to Red Imps in 2014, leaving weeks before their famous victory over Celtic.
Victoria Stadium is where Lincoln Red Imps shocked Celtic and is the only playing facility in Gibraltar, but the poor surface Rangers’ rivals played on was replaced in January with the help of a Fifa grant. The 5,000seat ground is located at the foot of the Rock of Gibraltar.
St Joseph’s beat Prishtina in the preliminary round, triumphing 2-0 against their nineman rivals in the home leg following a 1-1 draw in Kosovo. They finished third in the Gibraltar First Division last season, 11 points behind champions