Glasgow Rangers extended their winless run to six matches in all competitions after they held their Glasgow rivals to a 1-1 draw at Ibrox in the Scottish Premiership on Sunday.
Barry Ferguson has failed to lead the team to a win since the dramatic 4-3 victory over Dundee away from home at the end of March, and has not done his chances of landing the job on a permanent basis many favours.
The Light Blues decided to move on from Philippe Clement earlier this year and will have to source a long-term replacement for him this summer, with a familiar name leading the list of candidates.
The latest on the Rangers managerial chase
Football Insider recently reported that former Rangers head coach Steven Gerrard is the leading candidate to secure the job on a full-time basis ahead of next season.
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The outlet claimed that the English manager is the favourite for the role, ahead of Marco Rose, and that he is at the top of the club’s shortlist of options.
The 44-year-old boss usually deployed a 4-3-3 system during his first spell at Ibrox, which yielded an incredible, unbeaten, league title success in the 2020/21 campaign, and that could mean that the Gers need to recruit in a certain way to suit that system this summer.
It could also mean that there are some players currently in the Rangers squad who could move on from Glasgow because they do not fit what Gerrard would want in that position, and Danilo is a player who could fall into that category.
Why Danilo may not suit Gerrard
The Brazilian forward, who joined from Feyenoord in the summer of 2023, may not be ideally suited to Gerrard’s set-up because he has not shown himself to be suited to playing as a lone centre-forward.
Danilo has been used as a second-striker, or attacking midfielder, or as a centre-forward as part of a front two, either alongside Cyriel Dessers or Hamza Igamane, rather than being relied upon to play on his own.
That may be because the 5 foot 9 forward lacks the physicality to play as a sole number nine. He has lost 63% of his ground duels and 75% of his aerial battles in the Premiership so far this season, which shows that opposition defenders find it too easy to get the better of him.
The 26-year-old dud is reportedly on a wage of £26k-per-week, which is more than Mohammed Diomande (£12k-per-week), who provided the assist for Dessers on Sunday, and Nicolas Raskin (£19k-per-week), despite the duo being regular starters in midfield with 55 league starts between them this season.
Meanwhile, Danilo, who was described as being “sloppy” on the ball by pundit Steven Thompson, has started seven league matches this term and has struggled with multiple injuries during his two seasons at Ibrox so far.
Knee injury
September 2024 – November 2024
65
12
Knee injury
December 2023 – May 2024
171
32
Broken cheekbone
September 2023 – October 2023
43
9
As you can see in the table above, the former Feyenoord marksman has missed 53 games through injury for Rangers since his move to the club in 2023, which shows that he is not reliable in terms of his availability.
Therefore, Rangers should ruthlessly cash in on Danilo in the summer transfer window because he does not have the physicality to suit playing on his own up front in a Gerrard system and does not have the availability to make him a worthwhile squad member, particularly with a wage that is higher than club Player of the Year Raskin and Diomande’s.
Bad news for Dessers: 4-3-3 boss becomes leading candidate for Rangers job
Rangers have identified their leading candidate to replace Barry Ferguson at Ibrox.
ByDan EmeryMay 5, 2025
