His injury record isn’t great but his goals record isn’t half bad. Michael Beale has never hidden his admiration for Kemar Roofe, particularly since returning to Ibrox as Rangers boss, and the numbers show exactly why.
If the £4.5 million signing from Anderlecht had been on the pitch more and less on the treatment table then we could be looking at a very different career at Ibrox. Not that it’s been bad. Far from it. There was THAT goal against Standard Liege in Belgium, the home strike against Braga on the road to Seville and it was his goal against Aberdeen at Hampden that has them looking forward to the Viaplay Cup final against Celtic on Sunday.
The fact Roofe went off injured after netting against the Dons, recovered and is a doubt again for the final with yet another injury, sadly, is the story of the 30-year-old’s time in Glasgow. It’s been frustrating - for Steven Gerrard, Giovanni van Bronckhorst and now Beale.
Beale wants his injury doubts to be honest with him over their fitness before naming his team for the Hampden showdown. And the Roofe is an intriguing one. If fully fit, where would he fit in? The focal point of the attack, out on the right or on the bench?
Many have pointed to the statistic that Alfredo Morelos hasn’t lost a game against Celtic that he has started since the last League Cup final meeting with Celtic in December 2019. But a fully fit Roofe would give Beale a different option through the middle. That would see him battle it out with the Colombian and Antonio Colak for that position.
And his numbers are certainly decent. In fact, looking at the statistics - purely based on league games over their respective time spent at Ibrox - then both Roofe and Colak have the best strike ratio. The pair have netted an average of 0.86 goals compared to 0.59 for Morelos.
In Rangers’ title-winning season, Roofe netted 14 goals in 1564 minutes of Scottish Premiership action - a ratio of 0.81. And last season he improved even on that, albeit with less minutes as his 10 goals in 996 minutes meant he was just short of a goal every 90 minutes.
Even the best ratio for Morelos doesn’t come close to that. In Steven Gerrard’s first season in charge he bagged 18 league goals in 2206 minutes - a ratio of 0.73 which is equalled this season with nine goals from 1109 minutes. As for Colak, he made a blistering start this season although the the goals dried up a bit and his return of 11 league goals from 1150 minutes gives him that 0.86 goals to game ratio for his time at Rangers, the same as Roofe.
There’s no doubt Roofe’s statistics are impressive but the problem remains consistency in being available for selection. Of course, there is also the option of the the Jamaica international being deployed in a wider role ahead of Fashion Sakala, a role he occupied many times with such success during Rangers’ title win in 2020/21 and make his stats all the more impressive.
Beale has often gone out of his way to talk up Roofe since succeeding Van Bronckhorst in the hot-seat and the numbers certainly show why.
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