How do Rangers Cope With Lawrence Shankland Injury Absence

With the news that club captain Lawrence Shankland is set to be out of action for three months, Rangers boss Derek McInnes will be without one of his most trusted disciples for a quite substantial period of time.

So, how do Rangers make do in the meantime?

The signing of Venezuelan striker Kevin Kelsy looks even more important now. The plan most likely would have been to slowly ease him in, as he gets used to a new country, a new league, a new culture and so on and so forth.

However, the level of game time may have to be fast tracked as a result of this Shankland injury. Still, that is why the club paid the money to bring him in from MLS side Portland Timbers.

There is also Ryan Don Naderi, who came on for Shankland against Motherwell and found the back of the net within five minutes, though that was one of just four goals he has scored since joining in the winter, two of which came against Championship side Queens Park in an 8-0 win.

So, hard to know how much faith there will be in him. There is also Bojan Miovski, but again, he does not have a great record since returning to Scotland. At least with Kelsy, he is more of an unknown quantity, rather than someone who has proven to be pretty average in a Rangers shirt.

The new signing played just 20 minutes on Saturday, but already proved how good his movement can be in the box, hitting the post with a good chance four minutes after his introduction. He should have scored, but it was encouraging that he received such a good chance early on.

If we look at the set up against Motherwell, Rangers used a lot of width, particularly down the left hand side. You’d hope that with crosses from those sorts of areas, Kelsy and his physical presence will be able to feast off the service. The chance creation in that game - 4.28xG, six big chances and 28 shots - was the best for a long time. Any striker would love to get that sort of creativity behind them, so let’s see.

Overall, it certainly feels like this opens the door to Kelsy getting a chance in the XI. A start against St.Mirren would be handy to give him rhythm and an opportunity to build chemistry with his team mates ahead of the hugely important Old Firm double header leading into the international break.