MARTIN O’NEILL’s appointment as Nottingham Forest manager was announced on Tuesday and, not for the first time, Rangers fans are rightfully wary of the former Celtic boss. O’Neill’s new role won’t necessarily affect them directly, of course, but nonetheless the 66-year-old could throw a spanner into the works of the Ibrox club’s title challenge.

The problem, it appears, is at the heart of the defence - both in Glasgow and Nottingham. An injury crisis at the City Ground gives their new manager few options at centre-back and could see Rangers defender Joe Worrall’s loan spell at Ibrox cut short. With his parent club struggling for numbers at the back - and with a new manager installed who follows the Scottish game - there is every chance that O’Neill has taken note of Worrall’s encouraging displays this season and could give him a chance in the Forest first team.

Worrall’s departure would be an obvious setback for Steven Gerrard’s side and the 22-year-old has generally fared well whenever he’s started for Rangers. The question is: how badly would Worrall’s exit affect Gerrard’s side?

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There are currently four defenders at Rangers this season, including Worrall, who have featured regularly for Gerrard this season. So, how do Worrall’s stats fare against his teammates?

Going by the numbers, Rangers wouldn’t miss Worrall too much should O’Neill decide to recall the 22-year-old. Gareth McAuley manages far more defensive duels each game on average, as does Nikola Katic. Not only that, but Worrall actually has the lowest success rate of any Rangers centre-back in this regard. Worrall does attempt the second-most headers of any Rangers defender - only Katic averages more in any given match - but the Englishman is also tied with Goldson with the lowest success rate out of the players Gerrard has to choose from.

Winning tackles and headers is probably the most fundamental aspect of defending so, as the numbers suggest, Rangers wouldn’t be harmed too badly if Worrall returned to the English Championship as he doesn’t excel at this compared to his team-mates. Even when we look at other aspects of defending - such as interceptions, shots blocked or clearances - Worrall still fails to match the numbers posted by Rangers’ other defenders.

Only the 39-year-old McAuley manages fewer interceptions than Worrall on average - hardly surprising, given the aging defender’s lack of pace and slightly deeper position on the pitch - and the English centre-back makes fewer clearances than any other Rangers central defender on average. What’s more, Goldson (0.45) and Katic (0.47) block more shots than the 22-year-old (0.32) over the course of each game.

Where Worrall would be missed, however, is in the squad depth he provides for Rangers. But the solution for Gerrard might be right in front of him.

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Ross McCrorie first made his debut at centre-back at Rangers and spent the majority of last season there, proving himself to be a capable option in the heart of the Ibrox club’s defence. The 20-year-old probably operates a little better at the base of midfield, but with the current surplus of players currently vying for a spot in central midfield - McCrorie has no fewer than seven other players to contend with for a space in Gerrard’s three-man midfield - the academy graduate might find gametime hard to come by in this area of the pitch.

Gerrard ultimately needs four central defenders to see out the season and McCrorie’s stats suggest that he could fill any hole caused by Worrall’s departure. Whenever McCrorie has featured in the Rangers defence, he averages 7.42 defensive duels per 90 minutes - more than any other defender at Ibrox has this season. His success rate is around 4% higher than Worrall’s in this regard too. The 20-year-old also attempts around 3 more headers than the Englishman each game and makes more clearances, although makes slightly fewer interceptions (4.55) than Worrall (4.78).

McCrorie does admittedly give the ball away slightly more often than Worrall, and blocks marginally fewer shots on average. In short; in the fundamental aspects of defending, McCrorie has the edge but in some other areas Worrall has a marginal advantage.

All in all, then, should Worrall’s time at Ibrox be cut short and Rangers find themselves a centre-back down for the rest of the season, Gerrard doesn’t necessarily have to scope out the transfer market for a replacement to fill the void left by the 22-year-old Forest player. The solution to the problem is already sitting in the Ibrox changing room; all Gerrard has to do is to recognise that.