Sam Lammers is an “out-and-out striker” and a “goalscorer” despite currently being used as a number 10 at Rangers, according to former coach Kevin Hofland.
The former Netherlands centre-back said in the Scottish Sun (31 October) that when he worked with the Light Blues forward at PSV he “never saw anything like him” in terms of technical ability and his eye for goal.
He put the summer signing from Sampdoria’s struggles at Ibrox down to being “too shy” but claimed he was compared to former Manchester United and Real Madrid forward Ruud van Nistelrooy when he was coming through and suggested he would be better off as the central strike
Hofland said: “I worked with Sam all three seasons he was with PSV. He scored a lot of goals — he could score easily, with both feet and his head.
“In terms of technical ability I never saw anyone like him. There was no one at PSV who had any doubts that he would have a professional career.
“In the Netherlands, newspapers compared him to Ruud van Nistelrooy. But at the club we didn’t put him under that pressure.
Working with him every day, I saw what kind of boy Sam was — and probably still is. As a person, he was shy. Maybe a little too shy but that was just his nature.”
He summed up: “He’s an out-and-out striker. That’s his position. He can play as a No 10 but he’s a goalscorer.”
Night and day
Philippe Clement needs to do something different to Michael Beale if he is going to get anything like value for money out of Lammers because currently he doesn’t look happy at all.
His scoring record in the Netherlands, Italy and Germany, since he netted 19 in all competitions for Herenveen in the 2018/19 season, suggests that he is perhaps meant to be a support striker.
But as well as only finding the net nine times in the four seasons since then before his arrival at Ibrox he only had three assists in that time
So while he has largely been playing as a wide forward or a number 10, where Michael Stewart claimed his Rangers teammates were deliberately bypassing him in the 2-1 win over Hearts at the weekend, it would seem that isn’t the best place for him.
Cyriel Dessers, Danilo or Kemar Roofe have largely been used as the main striker this season, and while the latter two have been decent they have also missed a lot of time with injury.
Fellow summer signing Dessers has also struggled to have the desired impact in front of goal so perhaps Lammers needs a shot up top to help overcome the shyness that is apparently hindering him in Glasgow.
But with Danilo returning from his cheek bone fracture there would be few fans glad to see the Dutchman starting over the Brazilian right now.
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