Rohl must drop Fernandez & “rotten” Rangers flop who belong in Caixinha era

Glasgow Rangers head coach Danny Rohl was thrown in at the deep end at Ibrox after the Kevin Thelwell and Russell Martin double act lasted less than half a season.

The former Gers sporting director left the club a few weeks after Rohl’s arrival, and the German manager will now have an opportunity to spearhead recruitment heading into the January transfer window.

It will be interesting to see which areas of the squad he deems need to be added to after working with the group for the last couple of months, as a central defender will surely be on his agenda.

Why Rangers need to sign a centre-back

Rangers currently have Derek Cornelius, John Souttar, Emmanuel Fernandez, Nasser Djiga, and Clinton Nsiala as their centre-back options, whilst Dujon Sterling and James Tavernier are full-backs who can also play at centre-back.

On paper, that is a healthy set of options when they are all fit and available. However, the Gers have conceded 11 goals in six Europa League outings and 13 goals in 15 games in the Scottish Premiership, which shows that they have not had a tight defensive unit.

Nsiala has not played a single minute in any competition this season, per Transfermarkt, and may want to move on from Ibrox to pursue game time elsewhere.

That could open the door for Rohl to target a new centre-back addition, perhaps an experienced operator, because Fernandez and Djiga’s collective efforts have left a bit to be desired in recent weeks.

The German boss must find a way to drop both of them from the starting line-up because they look like they belong in the Pedro Caixinha era together.

Why Rohl must drop Fernandez and Djiga

Football FanCast recently noted that Djiga looked like the most improved player under Rohl, after he was dubbed a “rotten” player by Heart & Hand content creator David Edgar earlier this season.

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Unfortunately, the Burkina Faso international, who is off to the African Cup of Nations after Monday’s game, regressed to his old self against Ferencvaros.

The Wolves loanee looked shaky throughout the match, losing 100% of his aerial duels (3/3), per Sofascore, and his central defensive partner, Fernandez, was arguably worse.

The English defender lost five of his nine aerial duels and five of his ten ground duels, per Sofascore, whilst he was caught out by Varga’s movement for what turned out to be the winning goal.

Fernandez left Ally McCoist, as shown in the clip below, lost for words as he somehow ended up facing the wrong way as their forward scored from close range in a bizarre moment.

Unfortunately, that mistake came only a couple of matches after he was beaten far too easily by Zac Sapsford in the 2-2 draw with Dundee United for the opening goal in that game, making it two high-profile errors in the last three matches.

During Caixinha’s time at Rangers, the club finished third in the Premiership in the 2016/17 campaign and were sat in third when he was sacked at the start of the 2017/18 season, per Transfermarkt, which speaks to the state that Ibrox giants were in before Steven Gerrard came through the door.

Djiga and Fernandez’s performances in recent matches suggest that they belong in that era of the Gers, as they have not shown that they can deliver consistently quality performances befitting of a team that wants to win trophies.

The English defender made two high-profile errors in the games against Dundee United and Ferencvaros, whilst Djiga lost three of his four aerial duels against the former and all three of his aerial duels against the latter, per Sofascore.

This shows that neither of them have shown that they have the consistency or quality, at this moment in time, to be relied upon by Rohl in the present day, which is why the manager should ruthlessly ditch both of them from the starting XI.

Djiga, of course, will have to come out of the team after the clash with Hibernian because of international duty, but Fernandez should also come out to provide another player with an opportunity to play, whether that is Sterling or Nsiala, or both of them.

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