Rangers close to signing “athletic” £3.4m star

Rangers supporters will be desperate for their side to strengthen before Monday’s deadline, particularly defensively.

On Wednesday night, the Gers were demolished 6-0 in Champions League qualifying, humiliatingly dumped out 9-1 on aggregate, thereby conceding nine plus goals in a two-legged European tie for the first time in 65 years.

This has only cranked up the pressure on manager Russell Martin, despite the fact it was only his tenth match in charge across all competitions.

For now, Martin retains the trust of the Rangers board, if not the Rangers support, so could the addition of a new defender help his cause?

Rangers’ defensive issue

Ever since his first game in charge, a 2-0 victory over Panathinaikos in July, Martin’s first-choice centre-back pairing has been John Souttar alongside Nasser Djiga, the duo starting together eight times today to date.

However, the latter, on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers, is certainly beginning to show signs of weakness.

Djiga was certainly culpable for Club Brugge’s opening goal at Ibrox, with the Burkina Faso international having also been sent off during the dismal 1-1 draw with Dundee earlier this month.

So, as Rangers search for an upgrade, according to journalist Fabrizio Romano, they are close to signing centre-back Derek Cornelius from Olympique de Marseille.

It has been reported elsewhere that the deal will be a loan with an option to buy, which transfer insider Sacha Tavolieri believes will be worth €4m (around £3.4m).

So, will Cornelius become the fifth Canadian international to represent Rangers, after Scott Arfield, Fraser Aird, Luca Gasparotto and Colin Miller?

Why Derek Cornelius should excite Rangers supporters

Since making his senior debut for VfB Lübeck in the German fourth-tier, Cornelius has become quite accustomed to changing country.

After spells with VfR Neumünster and then Javor Ivanjica in Serbia, he returned to Canada in January 2019, joining the Vancouver Whitecaps, with his big breakthrough coming during his time in Major League Soccer.

After that, following a loan spell in Greece with Panetolikos, and then 18 months with Swedish side Malmö, he finally earned a big move to Olympique de Marseille, joining les Phocéens for around £4m last summer.

He did make 21 appearances in Ligue 1 last season, 17 of which were starts, but has now been deemed surplus to requirements by Roberto De Zerbi, following the arrival of CJ Egan-Riley, so is on the move again.

Analyst Kai Watson is certainly a fan, labelling the 27-year-old “athletic” while also praising his “excellent” aerial duel-winning ability.

Cornelius will certainly arrive at Ibrox ultra-motivated, ahead of a World Cup on home soil next summer.

Derek Cornelius

He has so far won 35 caps for Canada, starting all five of their matches at the most recent Copa América, as les Rouges upset the odds to reach the semi-finals, so, fitness permitting, he’ll be a starter for Jesse Marsch’s side next summer.

The question though still remains, how does he compare to the man he is set to replace in Rangers’ back-line, Djiga?

As the table documents, from the given samples, Cornelius comes out on top for the vast majority of metrics included.

The Canadian’s ball recoveries, duel-winning ability as well as his aerial duels success percentage all jump off the page, while Djiga only comes out on top in terms of ground duels.

Thus, all available evidence suggests that Cornelius will be an improvement on Rangers’ current options, demoting the Wolves loanee to the Ibrox bench.

​​​​​​​

_{Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.}