Kris Boyd savages Rangers strikers Youssef Chermiti and Ryan Naderi as Ibrox icon slams their attitude
Danny Rohl paired the duo up front together for the second game in a row and again both drew a blank in win over St Mirren
Kris Boyd insists Rangers strike duo Youssef Chermiti and Ryan Naderi don’t have the quality to drag Danny Rohl’s team to the Scottish Premiership title.
Tuur Rommens was on target as the Light Blues left Paisley with all three points, although it was another far from convincing performance from the Ibrox side.
The win means the top three are separated by just three points after Celtic came from behind to beat Motherwell at home and Hearts were beaten 1-0 on the road by Kilmarnock in the Saturday night kick-off.
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But Boyd has warned that goal difference could well be the factor that decides the title destination come the end of the campaign and he doesn’t see Rohl’s preferred front pair producing nearly enough to convince him that it’s returning to Ibrox.
“They don’t play together,” Boyd told Sky Sports. “They’re never near each other. The two of them just go as long as they possibly can, or the two of them come as short as they possibly can. If you’re going to come short then you’re expecting Mikey Moore or (Djeidi) Gassama to go in behind but that doesn’t happen.
“Rangers, in terms of the forward areas, there is no connection at all right now. You’re asking the question of ‘How do you get this to work?’ I’m not sure it does work. Both of them play as a lone striker. Both of them are willing to run, chase the ball into channels and try to cause the opposition problems.
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“But I’ll say it again, there is a real lack of quality from Rangers in the forward areas in terms of going and killing games off. They’ll come up short. The chances that Rangers had in that first half, they should have been out of sight.
“I don’t know what Chermiti is doing. It’s as if he’s thinking ‘I might score today but see if I don’t… it doesn’t really bother me’. You used to come off a football pitch absolutely fuming if you didn’t score a goal. That was my mindset.
“People will say ‘You didn’t contribute much more’ but that’s what happens with goal scorers. They’ll take themselves away and sacrifice themselves to get into areas where they know if chances are created, they’ll convert them. That is their part of the job. That is what you do in a team.
“I look at Naderi ahd Chermiti right now and I don’t see them bringing much else to the table either. They might run around; anybody can run around. You’ve got to have that little bit of quality and I don’t see it.
“Chermiti’s Celtic goal, that was quality. But it’s as if ‘this is a big game, I’m going to rock up here and show everybody in the world watching this game’. But I don’t see enough quality at the top end of the pitch that’s going to drag Rangers to winning a title.
“It’s as if they’re quite happy that they’re 15 or 20 yards away when the ball goes into the box. That’s what they’re going to be judged on so get yourself into an area where you’re going to score goals. There’s no better feeling in the world than scoring goals on a regular basis and if you can do it to lead your team to a title, that’s what’s at stake for Rangers right now.
“They’ve got an opportunity to win the league and I don’t see anybody to say ‘You know what? I’m going to be the man today to go and get that second or third to kill teams off.’
“We’ve seen it in previous seasons – goal difference can play a huge, huge part. That was an opportunity for Rangers to go and get three or four goals. They didn’t do it. All of a sudden you’re hanging on towards the end where something might happen.
“But I don’t see that ruthlessness in Rangers anymore, especially from their strikers. Cyriel Dessers was someone who was criticised on a regular basis. He wasn’t and out-and-out goal scorer, but he scored goals.”