Slow and predictable play means Rangers are lacking goals
Reliance on veteran Miller proves Rangers’ biggest problem is a lack of goals
RANGERS don’t have their problems to seek right now as they look to find a new management team and reverse a poor run of results. But I think one of their most significant issues this season has been the lack of goals right throughout the team.
Celtic will always be held up as the benchmark for Rangers and at the moment they have scored double the amount of goals as their old rivals – 67 to Rangers’ 33 – having played the same amount of games. The Ibrox side has also only won one of its last six games in the league, which is completely unacceptable for any Rangers team. Inverness Caley, their opponents this evening, are bottom of the Premiership but have only scored four goals fewer than them. Aberdeen, directly above Rangers in the table, have scored 16 goals more. So it’s fairly easy to deduce just where Rangers’ biggest problem lies. They just aren’t scoring enough goals.
You have to look at the underlying reasons for that and, in my view, their style of play is a large contributory factor. They are very slow and predictable in the way they move forward and that allows the opposition to get into shape defensively to thwart them. Teams are happy to also sit in and let Rangers have possession.
That was fine when they were in the Championship and were up against poorer defenders or part-time teams who would usually tire towards the end of a match. But in the top tier they have come up against better defenders and teams that are more organised, and Rangers haven’t found a way to regularly and effectively break them down.
A large part of that is down to the style implemented by former manager Mark Warburton. There is no element of surprise to their play, their build-up is laboured and there is a lack of quality. More often than not this season, Rangers have lacked the inspiration to find a way through.
The statistics bear that out. Kenny Miller has six league goals this season and Joe Garner has four. If you go back to their previous season in the top division, Nikica Jelavic managed 14 and Sone Aluko 12.
The year before that Miller scored 21 and Jelavic 16, while in the season before that Kris Boyd scored 23 and Miller got 18. So there is a massive disparity between those seasons and now. And if you go back to the season when I was there and we won the treble – in 2003 – Barry Ferguson and Ronald de Boer both scored 16.
Of course there are still a few months left of this season, but I think it’s already safe to think neither Miller nor Garner are going to be finishing with 16 or more.
I think Rangers’ final ball has been a central issue this season. Barrie McKay, as much as he has been hyped and he’s a very talented player, is someone who frustrates me. When I watch him, he gets into good areas but only for his final ball to be poor.
He isn’t picking out players in the box. Contrast that with someone like James Forrest, whose end product is now terrific. He’s now providing a goal or an assist for Celtic most weeks, whereas McKay is often wasteful.
Rangers have struggled to provide other decent alternatives in the wide areas of the pitch, trying Michael O’Halloran, Martyn Waghorn and Kenny Miller out there. All, though, are more natural centre forwards. Compare it to my day at Rangers when we had Neil McCann and Peter Lovenkrands.
Rangers need to move the ball quicker, see the first-time passes, take defenders on and do something inspirational to create a spark. At the moment they are not doing that. Whoever comes in as the new manager, it will be a case of damage limitation until the end of the season and just trying to get them back playing with a bit of belief.
There will have to be a massive recruitment drive in the summer that will need to be bankrolled by Dave King. Now I’m not saying he should go out there and bankrupt the club, but it’s obvious major changes are needed. You look at the two strikers signed last summer, Garner and Joe Dodoo. Between them they cost more than £2m and the pair have made a minimal contribution all season. Rangers could have got Jason Cummings for less than that and you could have imagined him banging in the goals. So you have to say their recruitment hasn’t been anywhere near good enough.
That Rangers are still relying on Kenny Miller at the age of 37 is a sign that they have not signed well.
They need to take their time with the managerial appointment and make sure they get the right one in.
They can’t afford to lose tonight as that will almost certainly lead to a knee-jerk reaction over fears that they might not even get third place this season.
King’s lack of communication and transparency on the matter hasn’t helped.
I don’t think an interim manager is what they need now. I’d leave Graeme Murty in place until the end of the season and take their time to bring in the right director of football and head coach. Both are going to be busy this summer getting this Rangers team up to scratch.