It’s really satisfying to see the team gel together so smoothly. We looked rampant and unstoppable for long spells in the second half. Things are not yet perfect – for one, I’m waiting to see what finally results in Kranjcar and Miller getting dropped. Defensively we are also still fragile. Foderingham, however, is twice the goalkeeper of last season, consistently dominating his area. Even Wallace and Tav look much improved, and I don’t necessarily consider them weak points in the squad (as things stand). I used to think we had 4 bombshells in the backline, any of which could cost us a goal in a match. Now I think that’s down to about 1.5 bombshells – cumulatively. That’s a far stronger position to be in. It’s not perfect, but every week we look stronger.
Goddamn, why did McCann do this to Allan? This was psychological torture. I almost felt sorry for the guy.
Before we get into it, please do take a look at The Rangers Report and RSC PDX. We have an incredible community of Rangers fans doing some incredible stuff with stats and numbers.
From Cautious Optimism To Rampant Goalscoring!
After such a performance, to criticise anything seems overly negative. Please bear in mind that I’m not looking to moan – quite the opposite! I’m just looking for ways to constantly improve the team. For example, besides his two goals, Morelos had a very mediocre game and to give him the Man of the Match award was a bit of a disservice to Windass (who radically changed the game) and Candeias (who looks purpose-built for Scottish football, an unstoppable tank down the right). Morelos is incredible at finding space in the box, but this was his worst performance on the ball, losing possession 8 times when he barely gets any time on the ball as it is. His hold up play is good, but against bigger teams he will not be allowed this laxness.
On the whole we lost the ball fewer times than against Ross County, so again it’s positive movements here. Alves was the big difference here, losing the ball only twice, compared to 8 last time. The two centrebacks are now playing with increased width, meaning there are more options for passes and less need to play long balls up the pitch that we tend to lose. Again, positives to take away.
A very consistent display by the team, a minor drop from last week’s overall pass accuracy but to be hitting 90% shows how dominant and strong we are on the ball. Kranjcar was poor. Too many Hollywood balls that almost come off. Candeias only made 13 passes but it’s important to remember that he looks to cross quickly and early whenever he gets the ball, and crosses aren’t recorded as passes. Tavernier is really becoming more and more reliable – not quite the Blue Cafu yet, but we’re edging towards it.
Poor Nemane, I think that’s the lowest ever pass accuracy I’ve recorded. He was only on the pitch for 8 minutes and barely touched the ball. I think he was a bit overawed as I believe that, that was his professional football debut! Hopefully it’ll stand him in good stead for the future. Miller was… Borderline anonymous in the second half. Having rewatched it, he touched the ball three times: once he lost possession after miscontrolling the ball and twice he made two very soft shots on goal that… I would say he should’ve done more with. At least Caixinha noticed his disappearance and subbed him off shortly after Kranjcar.
Again, speaking of Kranjcar, I’ll re-emphasise: he should never play on the left wing again. To clarify this,
Passes between Tavernier and Candeias: 25
Passes between Wallace and Windass in 36 minutes: 12
Passes between Wallace and Kranjcar in 54 minutes: 4
In fact, in that same time period Wallace made more passes to Alves than Kranjcar simply because he was so isolated.
Here’s Kranjcar doing that now-well-renowned piece of skill to beat the man, followed immediately by him doubled over and wheezing. Finally, when the cross does come in, he is running in at the near post. This wouldn’t be such a problem if he wasn’t doing it every single game. Especially when Candeias is more likely to over hit a cross (or at least cross deep) rather than under hit one – neither Kenny nor Kranjcar are in the right positions to take advantage of it. Compare to Morelos who effectively has three men on him and yet is still in a great position to score. However, when he does get in the right position, we see how dangerous that role, when played right, can be! He beats the offside trap, is about an inch away from the goal and Bain manages to make a great save.
Meanwhile, here’s the second goal scored by Windass. He was positioned perfectly for a left winger for the header, Pena wasn’t in the same zone for a cross as anyone else and Morelos is on the right side of the defender. This was the perfect storm of a goal, anywhere Candeias put it would probably have resulted in a goal. Stretching the width of the pitch really does help us open defences and create more opportunities.
Possession Map Networks:
First 45:
As mentioned earlier, no connections between Wallace and Kranjar, but there are between Wallace, Jack and Alves. Kranjcar drifting in also compresses the formation as usual and forces all of our attacks to become more predictable and come down the right wing. You can see where Tav and Candeias made over 12 passes, the ball was spending too much time down the one flank. When Windass was introduced Dundee could not handle us simply because we were repeatedly spreading them so thin. The increased width of the two centre backs again providing more opportunities for through balls. There are clear patterns in our play from week to week. We must be the only team in the league to choose to consistently play our second strongest lineup.
Second 45:
There is a clear spike in passes – actually more happened between Wallace and Windass than between Tav and Candeias in the second half. It was another example of Pedro’s substitutions revitalising the team and turning a dour 1-0 into an enthralling 4-1.
Jack sat deeper and didn’t make as many passes as the first half. This for me was very interesting and I believe was a trial run for the Old Firm: Jack dropped into a more conventional defensive midfielder position that created a defensive block that was more or less impenetrable (you could tell Pedro really wanted the clean sheet). In his place, Dorrans became the water carrier, making passes all over the pitch, starting attacks and relieving pressure. That kind of flexibility in our midfield duo really fills me with delight. We have a strong core of the team.
Speaking of the core, Pena came on and finally started to show us what he’s made of. With Alves, Pena and Morelos, we suddenly have an old school spine that is tough and forceful, one that Brian Clough would be proud of. Every week my faith in this team grows a little bit.
At the same time, there is a bit of confidence lacking and I believe that couldn’t be summed up better than the nightmare corner that we faced, where Dundee won three consecutive headers in our box. Once we’re in full gallop these scenarios should dissipate, but until then, they still serve to cause dread.
It’s simple to see how this went disastrously wrong. I don’t know why we handled this one so badly, we were just switched off. Usually we are much better. No one tracking the initial two runs at the far post, no one’s tight enough, somehow they are beating us in our own box. It wasn’t good enough. We need to keep switched on for all 90 minutes.
Kenny’s Decline:
There has been a lot of complaint over Kenny’s positional sense this campaign, and on top of the consistent missing of sitters was a moment so perfect, it can only be termed Peak Kenny.
I don’t have to add anything to this really. Almost getting tackled but keeping the ball, then running the whole width of the pitch before giving away the ball to their left winger in our own half. While he’s meant to be playing as a striker. It just actually isn’t good enough. I love him for what he’s done for us but… No one’s young forever. While it’s a risk of losing our club’s identity by dropping him – as is always the risk with massive player turnover – he is actually a risk to our ability to win games. And his contribution is declining every week. Previously, he was at least helping set up a lot of goals in our build up play. Now he’s barely making a pass every 10 minutes on the pitch.
Main Man Morelos!
Morelos is clearly a potential superstar striker. His goalscoring streak – extending back months to Finland – is difficult to maintain at any level. He has a lot of ability.
This ability extends beyond pace and strength too. The mental awareness to be able to increase the space between you and your markers when there are three defenders around you cannot be understated. It takes intelligent movement to do so. Credit to Candeias for an incredible backheel assist.
Minor Concerns Going Forward:
My biggest worry is that, put under pressure by County and Dundee, we have struggled a bit. When they sit deep and we try unlock their packed defence, we look miles ahead of them. However, when they shift gears and start to press us is when we start losing the ball a lot.
To credit Dundee, they did press higher than either Hearts or County did in their respective first halves. That minor style of a press tends to leave a few gaps and we played through them with relative ease. However, when they started to press very high up the pitch we initially struggled and started playing long balls and losing a lot of possession. In the end we did adapt though, and found ways to pierce their backline. We do need faster reactions to opposition behaviour – all that’s required in those scenarios is more rotational play that is difficult to track. With Jack as a conventional defensive mid it’s possible Dorrans took 10 minutes to adjust his style accordingly but in the end we were exemplary.
While Dundee’s pressing was hit and miss, the same could be said of ours:
We need to reset the formation in this press, there’s clear holes. Wallace shouldn’t be so tight on their winger as to risk being turned, however he does need to put pressure on him to force an error and not give him time. Miller should be deeper and not Morelos, who should be waiting to break on the counter. Dorrans is also MIA. Candeias needs to be aware of the cross field ball that they can play as well. Kranjcar is also far too deep, he needs to apply pressure on the man on the ball.
Here we basically have them. Dorrans could be tighter, but Morelos is already anticipating the only out ball, everyone else is being tightly watched. This kind of play forces mistakes and puts the opposition on the back foot.
Expected Goal Chain (xGC):
Again, this is a very, very basic measure of each players contribution to attacking phases/goals by measuring their input to successful attacks. It is by no means definitive, especially not my ‘model’. Build-up passes are 0.1, assists to shots and shots are 0.2 and assists to goals and goals themselves are 0.3
I think this is the best example yet of xGC. We see how Candeias contributed the most to our team’s attacks, his two assists bringing him up to first place. Third worst was Miller. Even though he spent just over an hour on the pitch, the fact that he was the third least contributing player is damning. Kranjcar contributed bits here and there but he seems determined to follow Kenny’s steps in spiralling out of first team contention by doing less and less effective football each week. What was impressive was how all attacks that had more than two passes in their build-up (so those that weren’t from freekicks or quick breaks) all had Ryan Jack involved. He was again fundamental in our play out from the back, along with Tav and Wallace. They are becoming a fearsome force. Windass, in less than one half, was immense. An assist and a goal, he changed the game when he came on. Though this is now also common knowledge.
In conclusion:
Each week this team is making it more and more difficult to pick holes in their performances. They were fluid, flexible and dangerous against an admittedly poor Dundee side. It’s a shame we go into the Old Firm next Saturday already. I would like to see the team progress upwards against St Johnstone and Aberdeen. However, Thistle will provide a good test. We do need to win both of those going into the game against Them… But that’s what it’s like to play at Rangers. You have to win all your meaningful games. Pedro’s showing himself to be an astute and sharp coach. This attacking ability hasn’t been seen at Rangers in many years. All I can say is that I continue to look forward to each week’s game, regardless of opposition. There is no one that this team should fear in this league – especially not at home.
Until next time Troops,
Yours faithfully,
Foreign Rangers Fan.
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