Kyle Lafferty will surely get far fewer opportunities with the current options up top.
Lafferty has made 25 appearances so far this season for Rangers and has scored six times, however, as he has only scored once for Rangers since September, that game time could start to become harder to come by.
Steven Gerrard told the media that his side must learn to adapt to the absence of Alfredo Morelos through suspension and added that: “We also have Kyle (Lafferty) in the running as well, maybe we might decide to go down a different way.”
Despite Gerrard still feeling that the Northern Irishman is in contention for the future, there are two reasons why he should not…
Zak Rudden
The first is due to an academy player. Rudden is currently on loan at Falkirk in the second tier of Scottish football and he is more than holding his own.
The 19-year-old has scored nine times in 18 Scottish Championship appearances, as well as scoring for Rangers in pre-season, so he could be in the running for some opportunities under Gerrard next season.
If that could be the case, then Lafferty should be moved on at the end of the season rather than potentially taking up the minutes that could be vital to Rudden’s development instead.
Jermain Defoe
Defoe’s arrival has pushed Lafferty to the third choice striker in the pecking order.
Despite the fact that Gerrard has tested formations with Morelos and Defoe up top together, as well as Morelos on the wing in a 4-3-3, when the pair play together it fails to get the best out of either of them.
That means that Gerrard is most likely to continue with his most familiar system with one striker and that means fewer opportunities for Lafferty, especially as Defoe has hit the ground running with three goals and three assists in six appearances for the Gers.
With such a clinical finisher in form, bar his surprising lack of composure against Kilmarnock in the SFA Cup, Lafferty will find chances hard to come by, even more so when Morelos returns from his ban to challenge Defoe up top.
