Rohl must make “offensive” star first Rangers signing after Meghoma error
Glasgow Rangers head coach Danny Rohl will be fully aware of the size of the task at hand after his team were beaten 3-0 by Brann on Thursday night in the Europa League.
Calling it ‘his team’ may be unfair at this stage, though, as he has not been in the building for a full week, yet, and has not had a chance to make any of his own signings.
Instead, the former Sheffield Wednesday manager is dealing with the fallout of Russell Martin’s 17-game tenure in charge of the Scottish Premiership giants.
Rohl has to attempt to stop the rot and get the team back to winning ways to climb up the Premiership table and the league phase of the Europa League.
The ex-Bayern Munich assistant manager will surely be using his first few games to assess the squad and decide what he needs ahead of the January transfer window in a couple of months.
One player who may need to improve his performance on the pitch to avoid being replaced in January is loanee left-back Jayden Meghoma.
Why Rangers may need to replace Jayden Meghoma
The left-back situation was an odd one during the summer transfer window. Martin allowed Jefte and Ridvan Yilmaz, two fairly experienced left-backs with plenty of games under their belts for Rangers, to depart on permanent deals, whilst only bringing in Meghoma on loan.
Max Aarons, a right-footed right-back, was trialled at left-back at the start of the season, but the former England U21 international has not started a game since he was sent off in the 6-0 loss to Club Brugge in August.
Meghoma, who worked with Martin at Southampton, was an interesting signing because he arrived on loan with very limited experience in his career to date. Per Transfermarkt, he had played four games for the Saints, four games for Brentford, and 14 games on loan at Preston.
Unfortunately, the 19-year-old left-back’s inexperience has shown at times in matches, as it did in the loss to Brann, as he failed to mark Jacob Lungi Sorensen for the host’s second goal.
TNT Sports commentator and former Rangers striker Ally McCoist noted that it was “remarkable” that the defender allowed Sorensen to get goalside of him with such ease.
McCoist also described Meghoma and Rangers’ marking for the goal as “diabolical” in the clip above, before later going on to analyse how easily and remarkably the full-back got eased out of the way.
It is not just the Europa League in which the teenage loanee has struggled, though, as he has also failed to excel in the Premiership for the Light Blues.
As you can see in the table above, the Englishman has lost the majority of his aerial duels and made multiple errors that have led to shots for the opposition.
Heart & Hand podcaster David Edgar noted “that entire back four needs replaced in January” after the 3-0 loss to Brann, which, of course, includes Meghoma.
With this in mind, Rohl may need to push for the club to bring in another left-back to, at the very least, compete with Meghoma, or to come in and take his place in the starting XI.
In August, it was reported that Rangers had made contact with Monaco to secure a deal for 21-year-old left-back Kassoum Ouattara, and the club should reignite that interest.
Why Rangers should swoop for Kassoum Ouattara
As aforementioned, Meghoma, who has less than 50 club appearances in his career, is the only senior and natural left-back option in the Rangers squad, which is why the club need to add another player in that position.
Ouattara has played 63 times for Monaco and Amiens, per Transfermarkt, and has played 31 matches in Ligue 1, which shows that he has more experience, and more experience at the top level, than Meghoma.
The French full-back showed a great threat at the top end of the pitch in Ligue 1 across 12 appearances for Monaco in the 2024/25 campaign, which suggests that he could offer quality in the final third from a left-back position for Rangers.
Ouattara, who has been described as a “very offensive” defender by writer Kai Watson, carries a threat with his ability to cross the ball as an overlapping left-back, as evidenced by the statistics in the table above.
He created three ‘big chances’ in five starts in Ligue 1, one of Europe’s major leagues, whilst Meghoma has only created one ‘big chance’ in five starts in the Premiership this term, per Sofascore.
On top of potentially providing an upgrade on the Rangers left-back from an offensive perspective, Ouattara is also more reliable defensively in aerial situations.
The 21-year-old defender has won 2.0 aerial duels per game and won 63% of his battles in the air, per Sofascore, across five appearances in Ligue 1, whilst Meghoma has won 0.6 per game in the Premiership, winning just 33% of his aerial duels.
This suggests that Ouattara may have handled the situation against Brann more effectively, as he is not as easy to beat in aerial contests, which could improve the team’s defending from set pieces.
Therefore, the Monaco youngster is a player who could arrive at Ibrox as an immediate upgrade on Meghoma with his play both in and out of possession at full-back.
This is why Rohl should be pushing for the club to bring the left-back to Ibrox as his first signing when the January transfer window opens for business, if they can convince Monaco to part ways with the promising youngster.
