Glasgow Rangers head coach Danny Rohl lost for the second time in as many matches in charge of the club in the Europa League against Roma on Thursday night.
The Italian giants came to Ibrox and won 2-0 under the lights, thanks to two first-half strikes, to make it three defeats in five matches for the new Light Blues boss.
It is hard to blame the former Sheffield Wednesday tactician for that dismal start to his career at the club, though, as he has had a tough run of fixtures, including this clash with Roma and a League Cup semi-final against Celtic.
Rohl has inherited a team that struggled badly under former manager Russell Martin, who only won five matches in all competitions during his time in Glasgow.
However, the German boss does have a chance to make it three wins out of three in the Scottish Premiership when his side travel to play Dundee away from home on Sunday.
With that match in mind, the Ibrox head coach must ruthlessly ditch centre-forward Youssef Chermiti from the starting line-up after an underwhelming performance on Thursday night.
Why Youssef Chermiti should be dropped by Rangers
The £8m summer signing from Everton has now produced one goal and one assist in 12 appearances in all competitions for the Light Blues in the 2025/26 campaign.
His goal, as shown in the clip above, was aided by some fairly questionable goalkeeping, and his assist was a simple pass to Danilo, who took a brilliant touch and scored from the edge of the box.
The Portugal U21 international has not provided enough quality in the final third to justify his price tag, yet, and his performance against Roma did little to convince supporters that he has been a good addition to the squad.
Roma had Artem Dovbyk leading the line for them at Ibrox and the gulf in class between the Ukraine international and Chermiti in their respective displays was staggering.
Whilst the Serie A marksman, who scored 17 goals for Roma last season (Sofascore), provided the perfect foil for his team to build attacks from, Rangers could not rely on Chermiti to bring others into play.
Minutes
73
86
Big chances missed
1
0
Passes completed
8
19
Pass accuracy
67%
100%
Key passes
0
4
Assists
0
1
Possession lost
8x
5x
As you can see in the table above, Dovbyk was almost perfect in possession and created four chances for his team on the night, including one for the second goal, whilst the Gers striker did not create any chances for his side and was a bit loose with his passes.
The former Everton forward also struggled in the 3-1 loss to Celtic at Hampden Park on Sunday. Pundit Michael Stewart bemoaned his “poor” finishing after the attacker spurned two huge opportunities to find the back of the net in the first half.
Therefore, Rohl should drop him from the starting line-up to take on Dundee in the Premiership on Sunday and unleash Danilo, who has scored in each of his last two appearances in the Premiership under the German head coach.
Chermiti is not the only underperforming Rangers player who should lose his place in the starting XI for that trip to Dundee before the international break, though.
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The former Bayern Munich and Southampton assistant manager should also ruthlessly ditch left-sided defender Jayden Meghoma from the side, after another disappointing showing.
Why Danny Rohl should drop Jayden Meghoma for Rangers
Rohl should drop the defender from the team after he decided to withdraw him from the game at half-time in order to change formation and move Max Aarons to left-back.
The Rangers head coach opted to move away from a 3-4-2-1 formation to chase the game with a 4-3-3, which meant that Aarons moved from right wing-back to left-back and James Tavernier moved from right centre-back to right-back.
Rohl deciding to move Aarons, who is a right-footed right-back, over to left-back instead of moving Meghoma back into a left-back position in a back four suggests that he was less-than-pleased with the Brentford loanee’s contributions in the first half.
Minutes
45
Pass accuracy
79%
Key passes
0
Successful dribbles
0/1
Tackles won
0
Interceptions
0
Ground duels won
0/2
Aerial duels won
0/0
As you can see in the table above, it is easy to understand why the manager may not have been too impressed by the wing-back’s first-half showing, as the 19-year-old flop failed to win a single duel.
Meghoma offered very little to the team in or out of possession in the opening 45 minutes, with no key passes, dribbles, tackles, interceptions, or duels won for the Scottish giants.
The Scotsman handed the youngster a player rating of 4/10 for his performance against Roma and wrote that he looked ‘out of his depth’ as an ‘untested’ youngster, which is hard to disagree with, given Rohl’s decision to withdraw him at half-time and his dismal statistics.
After the 3-1 loss to Celtic in the League Cup last weekend, Football FanCast suggested that the left-back may be on borrowed time in the starting XI because he was caught out defensively for the opening goal from Johnny Kenny, as shown in the clip below.
Meghoma was also caught out aerially from a set-piece in the 3-0 defeat to Brann in Rohl’s first match in charge, when he allowed Jacob Lungi Sorensen to get the run on him to score from a free-kick.
The teenage defender, who has won 25% of his aerial duels in the Premiership (Sofascore), has not proven that he can be a reliable option for the Light Blues at this moment in time, and the change at half-time on Thursday suggests that the manager trusts Aarons ahead of him in a back four.
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Therefore, Rohl should ruthlessly ditch Meghoma and Chermiti in order to unleash Aarons at left-back in a back four and Danilo up front against Dundee on Sunday.
