The Rangers flop must not start again this season

Glasgow Rangers kept themselves in the Scottish Premiership title race with a 1-0 win over St Mirren away to Ibrox on Sunday.

The Light Blues are three points behind first place Hearts with eight games left to play, with only three points separating the top three teams in this division.

Left-back Tuur Rommens’ first-half goal, his first goal for the Gers, earned Danny Rohl’s side three points in a tight game in Paisley..

The German head coach will be disappointed that his team did not score more than one goal in the game, however, as they collected 2.36 xG chances, 0.66 of which was Rommens’ goal.

Rangers may need to be more healthy with their chances if they are to overtake their rivals in the title race in the final eight games.

How Rangers beat St Mirren on Sunday

Although the overall result would not have been extremely good, considering that it was only one goal, the performance of Rohl’s team was very good due to the control they had in the game.

St Mirren didn’t create a single ‘big chance’ and only created 0.24 xG in the game, as Nasser Djiga and Emmanuel Fernandez failed to make a mistake throughout the game. The pace provided by the two backs allowed Rangers to get up front without being exposed more than John Souttar would have been able to do.

Because the Light Blues could push upfield, Rangers midfielders Nicolas Raskin and Tochi Chukwuani found the ball in their half more often than usual, allowing Raskin to dominate the game.

The Belgian midfielder, who assisted the goal, created four chances, including two ‘big chances’, despite only making 1.4 important passes per game this season in the Premiership, which shows that Rangers have done a better job of getting him on the ball in positions to create things for the team.

Therefore, the key to the team’s victory over St Mirren was the top line formed by the central-back partnership, because it allowed Raskin to show his best qualities on the ball in the opposition’s half.

The Rangers have bounced back from the start this season

While the likes of Rommens, Raskin, Djiga, and Fernandez impressed, there was one Rangers player whose performance was so abysmal that he did not start again in the last eight league games.

Ryan Naderi made his third Premiership start since his £4.7m move from Hansa Rostock in the January transfer window, and again failed to impress.

Despite the saves and missing ‘big chances’, goalkeeper Jack Butland finished the game with more touches (46) than the midfielder (44), who did not show up.

The German number 9 has played six games without scoring or getting an assist to prove himself for his efforts in the Premiership, when he came out again when they lost to Celtic in the SFA Cup earlier this month.

Therefore, his performance against St Mirren was the latest in a growing list of poor performances in Scotland’s top flight, as he failed to score with four shots and created no chances for his teammates.

The fact that he lost the ball 21 times from 44 touches against St Mirren sums up his display. He has been very careless with the ball at his feet, losing eight out of ten games, and that has been the theme of his time at Ibrox so far.

Naderi, to his credit, provided aerial space, winning six of nine aerial contests, but that did not offset how disappointing he was with the ball at his feet, both in general play and in front of goal.

Free goals, zero ‘big chances’ created, zero assists, and an 11% success rate in six Premiership games is not good for a striker in a team chasing the league title with eight games to go.

Therefore, Rohl should not start Naderi in another league game in the last eight games of this season, unless the striker comes off the bench and shows more of his game that he has shown so far.

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