There is concern over the injury situation at Ibrox after Glasgow Rangers striker Ryan Naderi was forced off at half-time on Saturday.
The 22-year-old, who signed a £4.7m deal on deadline day, had just scored his first Premiership goal for the club 15 minutes earlier, ending a two-goal drought in the last Scottish Cup.
The former Hansa Rostock man, who also provided an assist for Mikey Moore against Aberdeen before the international break, appears to be finding his groove as Danny Rohr’s starting centre-forward and it would certainly be a cruel blow if he misses the rest of the season.
Much is still up in the air, but in the midst of this anxious wait, it’s the perfect time to take a peek behind the scenes at how Naderi’s life in Glasgow began.
Naderi starts life in the Premiership with numbers
Competing in Germany’s third tier, Naderi always needed an adjustment period, given his minimal experience at senior level before moving to Ibrox over the winter.
For his former employers, the young marksman has scored 13 goals in 45 games, eight of which came in the first half of this season, underscoring the gamble Rangers took in signing him.
In fact, in eight Premiership appearances so far, five of them starting, he only boasts one goal and one assist.
Roll could replace Naderi by releasing a star Rangers player who isn’t even a striker.
Danny Rohr could soften the blow of Ryan Naderi’s injury by unleashing a star who isn’t even a centre-forward.
In the mold of his compatriot Thomas Müller, Naderi, thought to be around 9-1/2 years old, hasn’t necessarily blossomed in a creative sense yet, failing to create a single “big chance” and averaging just 0.5 key passes per game, with a pass accuracy of just 68%.
He has missed five “big chances” in front of goal, and his goal success rate is only 7%. His strike partner Youssef Cermiti has missed 15 “big chances” this season, despite boasting a goal conversion rate of 15%.
Naderi has the will to succeed and will definitely require patience given his young age, and it will likely take time for him to blossom into a true superstar under Roll.
As one former Rangers player knows all too well, the road to success isn’t always smooth.
The Rangers have already moved on from an upgrade in Naderi.
In a season in which Ibrox managers spent big on three new centre-forwards, the club’s top scorer has been long-serving right-back James Tavernier, and the fact that the aging skipper remains top of the table with 14 goals in all competitions says it all.
Rangers – Top scorer by season* | ||
|---|---|---|
season | player | the goal |
25/26 | Tavernier | 14 |
24/25 | dessert | 29 |
23/24 | Tavernier | twenty four |
22/23 | Tavernier/Colac | 18 |
21/22 | Tavernier/Morelos | 18 |
20/21 | Tavernier | 19 |
19/20 | Morelos state | 29 |
18/19 | Morelos state | 30 |
17/18 | Windurst/Morelos | 18 |
16/17 | Waghorn | 16 |
*All competitions | ||
Bojan Miovski, who returned to Scottish football from Girona, is the only player to score in double figures in 2025/26, with the Macedonian scoring his 11th goal for the club against Dundee United at the weekend.
The checkered fortunes of Rohr’s current striker squad has put even more focus on players who have recently left the club, with Mateusz Zukowski’s saga representing one of Rangers’ more bizarre stories in recent times.
The Polish talent previously signed for the Light Blues in 2022 in a deal worth £400,000, but has since made his only appearance for the club, against Annan Athletic in the Scottish Cup.
Zukowski was signed with the aim of being Tavernier’s successor at right-back in the future, but after his role changed this season, he has been reborn as a centre-forward and has been active since leaving the club.
After leaving Ibrox to return to Poland in the summer of 2023, the 24-year-old moved to Germany, joining Magdeburg in September, where he became the catalyst for this incredible goal tally.
Since April, the defender-turned-striker has scored 15 goals in all competitions, all of which have come in league games, more than any other player who has returned to Ibrox.
Such a performance is even more incredible considering he missed the first part of the season with a foot injury and did not make his first appearance in the Bundesliga second division until late November.
Zukowski, who plays in a higher league than Naderi’s former employer, has been active, scoring two goals in a row in the last two games.
Although he has missed 11 “big chances” so far, he has a goal conversion rate of 23% and an average of 1.3 key passes per game, a far better record than Naderi.
The Polish player, who scores a goal every 94 minutes in Germany’s second division, has put players back at Ibrox to shame with his clinical decision-making ability.
Not bad for a right-back, right?
