KEMAR ROOFE is confident he can handle the weight of expectation on his shoulders as he looks to fire Rangers to Premiership glory this term.
The 27-year-old completed his move from Anderlecht to Ibrox earlier this week and could make his debut when Steven Gerrard’s side face St Mirren this afternoon.
Roofe made his name south of the border with Leeds United and only spent one injury interrupted season in Belgium before signing a long-term deal with the Light Blues.
The imminent departure of Alfredo Morelos will leave Gerrard with Roofe, fellow new arrival Cedric Itten and Jermain Defoe as his main striking options.
And Roofe is determined to live up to the hype as he looks to make an instant impression on a support that have warmly welcomed him to Glasgow in recent days.
He said: “I'll be ready to play on Sunday if the manager needs me.
“Fitness wise, I'll have to take it game by game. You can do all the running in training or play in pre-season games. But it's only when it gets to competitive matches that you get tested.
“I haven't been with the group yet because they've been busy in the Europa League. But I've been training with the fitness coaches at the club and if the manager needs me, I'm ready.
“I'd like to think I'll rise to the challenge of scoring goals here. That's normal as a striker, a number nine. Everyone will expect me to score in every game, which isn't realistic.
“That won't happen but I'll go out on the pitch trying to do it. As a striker, that's why I play the game. I enjoy scoring, I want to score in every game.
“I'm here to score goals. To be honest, I can't remember the last time I played out wide.
“My playing style is that I can play in many positions. Maybe that's why people see me as a wide player.
“I can obviously do a job out there but at the moment I see myself as a number nine.”
The double deal for Roofe and Itten was another statement of intent from boss Gerrard and follows the captures of Ianis Hagi, Jon McLaughlin and Calvin Bassey earlier in the window.
Roofe was heavily linked with a move to Ibrox this time last term before he opted to head to Belgium as he brought an end to his successful stint at Elland Road.
He arrives in Glasgow for a defining Premiership campaign but he is only focused on what he can control in the blue half of the city as ten-in-a-row talk continues to escalate.
Roofe said: “Players are always the last to know about links to clubs. I didn't have a lot of information a year ago.
“They normally leave us out of it so I don't know what happened a year ago with Rangers. That's in the past, I'm here now.
“It's all about Rangers and what we do. It's about us trying to win as many games as possible – I never focus on anyone else that I can't control. I'm at Rangers, I'm part of it now and I want to contribute.”
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