Report: How have Rangers fared against the ‘big’ teams?

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Now that Rangers have faced the two top teams in the Championship, and a very solid SPL side in St Johnstone, it is worth taking a look at how Warbs’ Rangers Revolution has stacked up against title rivals and ‘superior’ teams.

The first obvious stat to pick at is he has recorded two wins from three, with both title rivals losing at Ibrox and the Saints inflicting Rangers’ only non-win all season.

Let us take a look at each more closely:

Hibs:

It took a rasping 35-yard free kick to finally beat Stubbs’ men, but the stats were more impressive; 60% home possession with 13 shots, five of which hit the mark. While Hibernian played impressively enough themselves, they remained toothless up front and only registered one shot on target at Rangers’ goal.

Falkirk:

After three minutes we thought this was to be a walk in the park, but it turned into anything but. The visitors made this one extremely tough, and it was not until Tavernier’s latest sterling free kick that the home side finally managed to restore their early lead, much to opposition manager Peter Houston’s amusing disdain. Home possession was again colossal, at 64% with 19 shots, of which 11 hit the target. While it was a hard-fought match, Rangers were deserving winners despite the fact, again, their opponents did not bend over.

St Johnstone:

Statistically this one was again very decent, at 62% of the ball and a respectable 12 shots, but only two of those were on the money and the visitors deserved their win thanks to managing 4 shots on target, three of which registered a goal. Rangers’ defence was drastically exposed in this one, and everyone viewed it as a critical learning experience in the growth and development of the team.

Since falling to that loss Rangers have registered seven goals in two matches, with just one conceded – including a standout display in Greenock, and Saturday’s gritty win over debatably the second-best team in the division suggested lessons had been learned from the loss – Wilson and Kiernan especially had far better positioning and the former particularly stood out with quite a few vital interceptions.

So, what is the final verdict? How do Rangers rate against the ‘better’ teams?

Overall the conclusion is positive – if the walkover at Easter Road is to be included, Rangers have had the best of the four matches. Just that one bad loss blots the copybook, and it does appear to have helped in terms of learning.

Rangers will find their gung-ho gusto style will generally stroll through most matches in the Championship, but more patience is required against the better teams – but Rangers are comfortably the best in the division so that patience will invariably be rewarded more often than not.

Keep it up lads.

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3 COMMENTS

  1. Let's not forget we have only played 15 games as a team so to have won 14 and scored 48 goal is a great start. Our only defeat to St Johnstone who stuffed Aberdeen 1 5 puts it into perspective

  2. like your comments as for the bigger teams we have played as for the St Johnston game if it was not for the defensive mistakes I think we could have won it ,we had most of the play ,they hit on the break like Motherwell did to us last season .For the Falkirk game I don't know why there manager is crying the game should have been won earlier ,what about the decisions that went against Rangers stone wall penalty first half as for the linesman flag up for offside two times which were not .This manager is always complaining about referees ,.WATP

    • Bang on. It makes absolutely no sense for anyone to criticize the refs for the most part. Unless it's a completely egregious call of course. Everything else is just the luck of the game, good or bad. It's part of the human element of sports. I actually like it that your game isn't overrun with coaches challenges and video reviews like here in the US… never let that happen to your game by the way, it adds at least an hour to every game….

      Anyhow, my point is that criticizing the refs only keeps you in that moment instead of moving on, when 1) the call is never going to change, and 2) if you played better, the refs wouldn't matter. Let's hope Falkirk dwells on this one and gets rolled at the weekend… haha. Warburton is smart by keeping his opinions out of the media. That way, none of his players will start parroting that crap and instead will just keep the pressure on whoever is on the pitch that day.

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