Glasgow Rangers head coach Danny Rohl was pictured holding up a shirt with Patrick Stewart and Kevin Thelwell little more than a month ago, and now he is the only one of those three men remaining at Ibrox.
The Light Blues announced on Monday that they have parted ways with their sporting director and CEO after the club’s dismal start to the season, and the failure of Russell Martin’s appointment.
Despite coming in after Martin won five of his 17 matches in all competitions, Rohl has won all four of his Scottish Premiership matches in the dugout so far, which is no mean feat.
The Gers had only won one league game before the German’s arrival at Ibrox, and goals from Emmanuel Fernandez and Mohamed Diomande against Livingston claimed a fourth straight victory for Rohl on Saturday.
Despite those four wins in four games for the former Sheffield Wednesday head coach, there is still plenty of work for the tactician to do to make sure that the Light Blues are competing for silverware moving forward.
For example, summer signing Oliver Antman failed to deliver once again in the win over Livingston and should be dropped from the starting line-up.
Why Danny Rohl must drop Oliver Antman for Rangers
Thelwell swooped to sign the Finland international for a fee of up to £4m from Go Ahead Eagles in the summer in an attempt to bolster Martin’s options on the flanks.
Unfortunately, the 24-year-old flanker has failed to deliver much in the way of quality at the top end of the pitch since his move to Ibrox in the summer, with no goals and three assists in 18 matches, per Transfermarkt.
In fact, Antman has no goals and one assist in 17 games since his two assists on his debut against Viktoria Plzen, which illustrates just how much he has struggled in front of goal in recent weeks and months.
The Finnish forward, as shown in the graphic above, scored for his country during the recent international break, to go along with an assist, which means that he has been more productive for his national side than for Rangers this season.
Rohl provided the former Eredivisie star with a chance to shine from the start on the right wing against Livingston on Saturday, possibly due to his international form, but he did not reward the manager with a strong performance to justify his inclusion.
Minutes
64
Shots
0
Key passes
1
Big chances created
0
Crosses completed
0/3
Dribbles completed
3/7
Duels won
5/13
As you can see in the table above, Antman made little impact at the top end of the pitch for the Light Blues, whilst he was also dominated by the Livingston defenders in physical contests.
With games against Braga in the Europa League and Falkirk in the Premiership coming up this week, Rohl must ruthlessly ditch the Finland international from the starting line-up to provide other players with an opportunity to impress.
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Antman has simply not done enough in the final third to suggest that he deserves a continued run of games in the team, as he has gone seven matches without a goal contribution in all competitions for the Gers.
With this in mind, the German head coach should finally unleash Nedim Bajrami from the start against Falkirk at the weekend, whilst he is unable to feature against Braga because Martin did not add him to the Europa League squad list.
Why Danny Rohl should finally unleash Nedim Bajrami for Rangers
Former sporting director Thelwell attempted to bolster the club’s options at the top end of the pitch with the signings of Djeidi Gassama, Thelo Aasgaard, Antman, Youssef Chermiti, Mikey Moore, and Bojan Miovski in the summer.
This shows that he attempted to replace Bajrami, who played in the attacking midfield and wide areas for Philippe Clement, as four of those players play in the Albania international’s main positions.
Per Transfermarkt, the £3.5m signing from Sassuolo has only played 196 minutes in all competitions. 24 players have played more minutes for the club, including players like Jeft and Cyriel Dessers, who left in the summer.
Bajrami was described as “anonymous” in a game last season by content creator Stevie Clifford, which now perfectly sums up his situation at Ibrox this season, as he has been so rarely used.
Now, though, Rohl should unleash the Albanian flop from the start in the Premiership because he has the potential to be an upgrade on Antman at the top end of the pitch, based on his form at times for Clement last season.
Whilst it would be disingenuous to suggest that Bajrami had an amazing debut campaign with Rangers, there were some promising signs in his performances domestically and in Europe that suggest that he has more to offer to the team.
Starts
15
8
Goals
2
1
Big chances missed
2
0
Key passes per game
1.0
1.3
Big chances created
4
6
Assists
1
0
As you can see in the table above, the versatile attacker was not fairly rewarded for his creativity in the 2024/25 campaign, as his teammates only scored one of the ten ‘big chances’ that he created.
This season, Antman has only created two ‘big chances’ and delivered one assist in 12 appearances in the Premiership and the Europa League combined, per Sofascore, which suggests that Bajrami could provide more creativity than the Finnish flop.
Thelwell attempted to replace the former Serie B playmaker in the summer with a host of new signings, but these statistics suggest that the former Rangers chief failed to do so successfully.
This is why Rohl should ditch Antman to unleash Bajrami, who could offer more quality in the final third, when the Gers face Falkirk in the Premiership on Sunday, to see if he can ignite his Ibrox career under the German boss.
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