As bad as Aasgaard: Rangers must drop Ibrox dud who Rohl “needs more from”

Rangers head coach Danny Rohl secured his fourth consecutive Scottish Premiership victory since replacing Russell Martin, following a 2–1 win over Livingston at Ibrox on Saturday.

Emmanuel Fernandez and Mohamed Diomande scored the goals that sealed the three points, although the game was filled with contentious moments.

Both Livingston’s equaliser and Diomande’s late winner came after narrow offside checks that were eventually ruled valid.

The biggest controversy came when Fernandez appeared to block a goal-bound effort with his arm.

VAR decided that his arm position was natural, and no penalty was awarded—a decision that prompted Livingston’s official X account to accuse the officials of missing “a blatant handball.”

While the debate around refereeing dominated discussion, Rohl’s more immediate concern will be the performances of certain players. One of the most disappointing displays came from Thelo Aasgaard.

Aasgaard fails to justify his starting role

The Norwegian was selected to start in the No.10 position, playing ahead of Nico Raskin and Diomande. However, he struggled badly and offered little attacking threat. His poor first half led Rohl to replace him with Bojan Miovski at the interval.

According to Sofascore, Aasgaard failed to take a single shot and created only one chance—none of them classed as a “big chance.” Across the Premiership season, he has yet to score or create more than one clear opportunity for any Rangers head coach.

His only assist under Rohl came against Dundee, and it was a simple pass from midfield that Djeidi Gassama converted into a long-range goal.

These statistics, coupled with his performance against Livingston, strongly suggest Aasgaard should be dropped for Thursday’s Europa League clash with Braga.

The 23-year-old has not taken advantage of his opportunities and has done little to convince Rohl he deserves to remain in the starting XI.

Oliver Antman also under scrutiny

Aasgaard wasn’t the only player who struggled. Oliver Antman offered little attacking threat and is another candidate to be left out of the upcoming Braga fixture.

Rohl may have hoped that Antman’s strong international showing for Finland—where he scored and assisted Teemu Pukki in a 4–0 win over Andorra—would translate into confidence at club level.

Instead, the winger was ineffective at Ibrox, matching Aasgaard’s output: no shots on goal and only one created chance.

Signed to provide creativity on the right flank, Antman impressed last season with 17 assists and seven goals for Go Ahead Eagles.

So far at Rangers, he has just one league assist from nine Premiership matches, earned earlier in the campaign against Livingston.

Since debuting with two assists against Viktoria Plzen, he has registered no goals and one assist in 17 matches across all competitions.

He has also failed to contribute in Europe, with no goals or assists in three Europa League league-phase appearances. His lack of impact suggests he is unlikely to influence the match against Braga if selected.

With both Aasgaard and Antman struggling to deliver, Rohl may need to take a decisive stance and remove them from the starting lineup for Thursday’s European fixture.

Given their disappointing displays against Livingston, Rohl should make the tough decision to leave both Antman and Aasgaard out of the starting lineup for the upcoming clash with the Portuguese side.