Rangers have a real knack for making life harder than it needs to be when it comes to wingers. We keep talking about shapes, structures and patterns of play, but the basic balance of the front line still feels wrong.
The frustration for me is simple. A player’s best position is the one they’ve built their career on. Yet we’ve seen it again and again at Ibrox: wide men shifted onto the opposite flank, asked to do a job that takes them away from what they’re actually good at. It might look clever on a tactics board. On the pitch, it often just blunts them.
Four left wingers, one right winger – and we loaned the right
Right now the squad feels lopsided. We’re stacked with players who are naturally stronger off the left and barely have any genuine options on the right. Then, on top of that, we send out on loan a right winger we spent serious money on, only to see him mainly sitting on a bench abroad while we’re crying out for goals and creativity on that side.
It’s hard to dress that up as smart planning. When the right flank is offering next to no real output, you can’t help but look at that decision and shake your head. Signing a player to play in his strongest area, then barely using him there, and finally letting him go when that position is weak, just doesn’t add up.
Cortes under Danny Rohl: time to put him back on the right
For me, Cortes should be brought back into the squad as soon as we can and actually used properly. Before he joined us, his best work had been on the right wing. That’s where he looked most dangerous, where he was comfortable facing up full backs, hitting the byline or coming in on his stronger foot in the right way for his game.
We seemed to decide almost overnight that he was a left winger instead. You can see the logic of inverted wide men in modern football, but not every player suits it. Under Danny Rohl, with a new structure and a fresh start, it would make a lot of sense to give Cortes a proper run on the right and see if he can finally solve a problem position.
A front three that actually looks balanced
If we’re talking about a more natural front line, there’s a simple picture that makes sense: Gassama off the left, a proper centre forward through the middle, and Cortes off the right. That gives you pace, width and a more honest shape, rather than three lads all wanting the same zones on the pitch.
The centre forward spot will always spark debate, and whether it’s someone like Miovski or another option entirely, the key is that the profile fits. A striker who occupies defenders and lets the wide players do their work, instead of everyone crowding into the same half spaces and making it easy to defend against us.
Winter window reality and why we must use what we have
The other thing to remember is that the winter window is rarely kind. Clubs don’t like losing good players mid-season unless they badly need cash or get offered silly money. That makes it very hard to fix structural problems in January without taking big risks.
Which is why sorting out what we already have is crucial. Before we talk about another rebuild, we should at least be using players in their natural roles, especially in a squad that already leans heavily towards the left. Get the balance right, give lads a consistent run in their proper positions, and we might find a few of these issues look a lot smaller very quickly.
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