Player ratings; where the new signings rank so far…

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Player ratings; where the new signings rank so far…

Some might argue Rangers are only four matches into the new season, but the reality is that is not only enough to make an early judgement in itself, but there was of course the small matter of the League Cup too, making Rangers’ competitive outings now totaling a fairly substantial nine for the new campaign.

It does seem enough 90 minutes have been completed now to make some kind of review of the new signings, and how they have fitted in to this point. Have Frank McParland and Mark Warburton recruited wisely? Have there been any disappointments so far? Or have all the new players done their bit at this juncture?

Here is a player-by-player compilation of the new blood:

Matt Gilks:

The best thing about Gilks has been his presence – it has pushed established number one Wes Foderingham up a level, and the former Swindon keeper has by no means disgraced himself in the SPL. His understudy has had little to do, in truth, making only a handful of appearances, but on the simple basis we are seeing so much more from Wes by the sheer competition, the signature of Gilks has to go down as a success. 8/10

Clint Hill:

A surprise acquisition, his arrival at Ibrox was justified by many on the basis of comparisons with David Weir. Here was a veteran defender coming in, pretty much at the end of his career, and if Weir was anything to go by, his age was not a valid stick to beat him with. Unfortunately, Hill has been extremely poor so far. The only matches he looked remotely at ease in were the trip to Stirling in the league cup, and the visit a few days earlier of Annan. Otherwise he has looked completely off the pace, never more highlighted than when ‘Speedy Gonzales’ himself Kris Boyd absolutely did him for pace at Rugby Park. No wonder Rangers are working tooth and nail to try and secure Philippe Senderos. 4/10

Lee Hodson:

The Northern Ireland international has had limited game time but looked rather good when given his chance – indeed, he has been called up by Michael O’Neill again for this upcoming international break. His signature has also pushed established RB James Tavernier on as well, and vastly improved his defending. This was a wise import, and one that seems to be working on all fronts. 8/10

Joey Barton:

The hype over this one was colossal, most of it generated by Barton himself, and with the reputation he brought from England Rangers fans expected a midfield dominator and enforcer to grace the Hallowed Turf. Alas, he just has not produced on that scale. By no means a failure, he nevertheless has not lived up to expectations so far, and one wonders how long ‘lack of match fitness’ will continue to be an excuse. He will be closely judged at Celtic Park next month, and one hopes the classy player who owned the English Championship player last season finally makes an appearance. 6/10

Jordan Rossiter:

Valued at £8M, Rangers got him for £250K based on cross-border youth transfers, and it looks like one of the canniest quarters of a million spent in some time. Drawing comparisons with both Barry Ferguson and Steven Gerrard, Rossiter has slotted in absolutely impeccably, reading the game brilliantly, rarely wasting a pass, and working hard to close opponents down. Not to mention quite happily tackling too. In Rangers’ currently underwhelming midfield, he has been an absolute stand out. 9/10

Niko Kranjcar:

The Croatian has had a patchy time at Ibrox so far. Glorious at Fir Park, he struggled v Hamilton. Another composed display v Peterhead, he was underwhelming at Dundee. When the Croat is on his game, his vision, awareness, class and general composure are a joy to behold, but when teams give him no time, he struggles to make any sort of impact. That Hamilton criticism stung him, and he has looked like a man trying to prove his doubters wrong. There is potential here, let us just hope it starts to fully click for him. 7/10

Matt Crooks – N/A

Josh Windass:

Only really able to have any sort of impact in the League Cup before injury ended his time in the side, Windass has been, on the brief amount fans have seen of him, a breath of fresh air. A strong, creative, goalscoring midfielder with intelligence, pace, dribbling ability and power, Windass has all the tools to really have an impact – one only hopes he comes back from injury in the form he was in. 8/10

Joe Dodoo:

Not really been given a chance by Warburton, limited only to sub cameos and one ill-fated start at Killie – Dodoo has managed to score in his fleeting appearances and looked positionally sound with strong awareness and reading of the game, but as yet has not really made the breakthrough to first-team regular. One wonders if his new manager actually favours him at all. 6/10

Joe Garner:

Unexpectedly given a debut at Killie thanks to aforementioned untimely injury to his team mate, Garner gave Rangers a glimpse of what he could offer. Not a lot, so far, in truth. Some good positions, a couple of wayward shots, and the ability to draw a lot of fouls. It was only 90 minutes and he did not expect to play, so it would be unfair to make any conclusions but what he displayed was distinctly unimpressive. Plenty time to prove himself though, and one wonders if Celtic Park will be the place he will do it. Just please do not dive again. 5/10

Feel free to agree, castigate, disagree, froth at the mouth in the usual place, folks

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41 COMMENTS

  1. Can't disagree with your ratings there.
    My line-up for the Celtic game:

    Gilks
    Hodson Wilson Wallace
    Barton
    Tavernier Rossiter Mackay Windass
    Krancjar
    Garner

  2. cant disagree with any of that except the part about hodson pushing tav on to defend better. I dont believe he has at all. the goal against motherwell was from his clumsyness giving the attacker all the time in the world to cross the ball into the box and from memory the story was similar at hamilton coming from tavs side. he isnt a defender and the sooner warburton stops being loyal to him (and others) the better we'll be. id start hodson since the status quo isnt working, cant fault tavs contribution obviously but against celtic that sinclair will tear him 1 all day.

    maybe a little over critical on krancjar hes had at least 3 assists and looked good in what is mostly sub appearances.

    Barton is doing what hes paid to do, but I get the feeling its the defence thats costing rangers its performances as well as results. when we're 1 down we get edgy and start the long ball nonsense we become wasteful. when we address the defence problem the rest will come imo.

    time to drop kiernan! preferably down a hole

    • Rangers have conceded the 1st goal in every match bar 1 and you think a defender is our best player in the team? I suppose we should be loyal to every player who likes playing for Rangers? Kiernan, Wilson? Stick by them watch the title dissapear before October. Ur entitled to ur opinion warburton is paid to do the job not be a fan of players.

  3. Tend to agree with your general directions although your scoring may be consistently up or down a point or two with some players reflecting your favourites. Main concern for me is I don't think you can play Rossiter and Barton in the same team….seems to have eliminated a lot of our pace in moving the ball. ….and I would keep Rossiter in. Any escape clause for Clint Hill should be used as he is not going to cut it. All of it is related to available budget (or lack of it) …..

  4. I think you've been at the sherry…

    Gilks, Hodson, Windass – none of whom have really played – all 8's??

    Rossiter – 9???

    Kranjcar – 7???

    Garner who had less than a gam and unexpectedly at that – 5???

    Sober up fella…

    • He gave Gilks and Hodson 8s because while they haven't played much (though looked decent enough when they have) Wes and Tav have looked improved since their arrival.

      Windass has been decent but not had much time so hard to judge. Given a 'match rating' of what he has played 7 is probably my fair enough.

      Rossiter has barely put a foot wrong since his arrival – agree with a 9. Kranjcar has blown HT and cold when he's played. Potential is there but not shown often enough – 6 or 7.

      Garner shouldnt be judged based on >90 minutes bit as far as match ratings go (judging purely on his contribution in that game) 5 or 6 is reasonable, if not an indicator of how he will perform in time.

      Hill I would give a 3, along with Kiernan.

  5. I think you are being generous with a 4 for Hill. He is another that likes talking to the Press but on the Park he is like a man down. A total waste of a jersey and a wage. He should be no where near the team.

    As for Barton, I wouldn't give him more than 4, another one that talks too much and underperforms on the pitch! He needs to prove himself big time against Celtic or he will be consigned to the dustbin as another flop!

    Kranjcar has the ability but can't last 90 minutes. Whether that should question the training and illogical preseason trip to the USA is open to debate.

    Too early to say for most of the others since they haven't had the game time.

    Rossiter is the best signing and hopefully Dodoo will prove to also be a success.

    In terms of last seasons players Kiernan wouldn't score more than 4 but the biggest disappointment for me is that Wallace is struggling in this league!

  6. I would agree in principle with comments and scores, but would note that Dodoo was given a starting slot against Killie, which implies at least some favour with Warbs. He could have started Miller through the centre and O'Halloran wide.
    I might also have marked Barton down further. Although he has talent, shown in last season's Championship, he has not displayed it here yet. Respecvt has to be earned.

  7. Garner hasn't played 90 minutes so the article needs to change to address that inaccuracy.
    Rossiter was never valued at £8m. That was the figure that Danny Ings cost at a tribunal of similar circumstances. Difference was, Ings had played over a hundred first team games with a decent goalscoring record. £2m to £3m max at a push.

  8. Joey just needs a little more time, and I am sure we'll all have the patience to give him as much time as he needs.

    • the last person to give him time was the judge that jailed him he should spend more time on the training ground not on twitter talking about celtic everyday

  9. If Senderos signs I would drop Kiernon and play Senderos and Wilson. Everyon blames Hill for Boyds goal but Kiernon was marking him first.

    • Listen fat Boyd showed them both a clean set of heels ffs, that totally scares the shit out of me if there playing against the unwashed!!!!?

  10. I know it's not related to the post, but what a player Oliver Burke is. We need to make sure that we pick up the very best young talent when they're 8 years of age, and not let a future star from Kirkcaldy slip through the net. If any of you haven't seen him play, check him out on Youtube. At 19, he's already a beast. I'd say his move to Leipzig is a shrewd one…he'll be playing in the Bundesliga week-in, week-out and getting trained by some of the best coaches in Germany. Expect Bayern to come in in 12 or 24 months time with a mega offer for him. Ryan Gauld made a good choice to go abroad to develop, but maybe a smaller club in the Portugese top tier (as Leipzig are in the Bundesliga) would have been a better move.
    While all eyes are on our first team, we should all be focusing just as hard on what's happening in the academy. That's our future, but people are largely ignoring it and calling for more money to be spent on the first team. I'd rather see Mr. King invest everything in the academy. I'm disappointed that not one of the academy players are deemed ready for inclusion in the first team this year, if the first few weeks of the season are anything to go by. Warbs – quite rightly in some ways – stated that our young players should be going down South on loan to be challenged…but one could just as easily say that they'd have a better chance of developing if they sampled playing in front of 52,000 every second week. The youth team players are no worse than the likes of Clint Hill – who talks a good game and can encourage young players…but we don't need coaches playing in the first team. I'd rather have Hill encouraging our young players from the sidelines, sorry.

  11. I think we really need to look at a plan B or celtic will tear us to bits .
    Read in an article a suggested 3-5-1-1 formation which obviously would require a strong cb purchased and still allows tav and Wallace to be creative and push forwards when opportunity is there or 5 defenders when needed as well as midfield cover be solid .
    Barton for me has been disappointing so far and in heat of battle if chips are down I don't know how he would be tbh he has on more than 1 occasion totally lost his man for the team to concede a goal then we chasing game against team quite happy to defend a lead against us as quite frankly we struggle to break most teams down atm ., also what is it with the need to play a 60 yard wonder pass constantly ? Wafghorn is probably our most direct player ( injured ) windass looks a find ( injured ) holt is in my opinion the only midfielder we have with the whole package of passing and movement required ( injured ? )Crooks …. well still to know or does he even know where he will be played if he ever recovers form injury ( Far too many injured which poses its own question ) Barrie Mackay if he was to do what he does best instead of beating man then backtracking all the time , our only 110% for celtic for me would be Kenny miller shows how it should be done most of the time , Krancjar is a very good player if surrounded by quality but looks uninterested when going gets tough , MOH needs game time as it looks more and more like a player who signed for us but wishes prob another team had asked for his services , Harry forrester is another 110% player who appears to get a free role in team great when we dominating , not so great when we need to chase a game . am worried bears really worried that the management are struggling to find our best starting 11 or indeed even able to change system to suit " nothing more I could do " will come back to haunt warbs whom I think is the best bit of business we have done for many a year BUT IF we get beaten at parkhead , the daggers will be out big time so things need to happen pronto . Oh and another thing when you get totally outpaced by Chris Boyd you know your times up …. only sayin

    • Good points. We certainly have no more than 3 defenders in our current squad (as well as a few charlatan 'defenders'), so I would stick to a back 3 as well. On the injuries thing, I haven't seen the players live this season, but I remember back in the Advocaat days the physio room was full of crocked players all the time – very often these injuries were hamstring tears or pulls. I noticed one thing at the time (of Advocaat's reign)…whenever the away team would come out for their pre-match warm-up at Ibrox, they'd be out a full 10 mins+ more than our guys, doing all their stretches and properly warming their muscles. Always wondered if that was the reason for so many of our injuries.

  12. Horrible ratings, Rossiter is massively overrated and done very little. Hodson 8 for games against part time teams? Gilks the same? Seriously?

    Windass has hardly played; realistic ratings are these;

    Gilks – 6.5
    Hodson – 6.5
    Hill – 2
    Barton – 3
    Rossiter – 5
    Niko – 5
    Dodoo – 5.5
    Windass – 6
    Garner – N/A

  13. "Just please do not dive again."

    Have you seen the wallop Garner took on the face in that moment? You've bought the media line on that one methinks.

  14. So Lescott off to Greece.

    Is Athens nearer to Manchester than Glasgow?

    Warbs better be careful otherwise he will be overtaking King in the lying stakes!

  15. Chris Sutton as per usual couldn't wait to say about Garner when big amo went near him down like a ton of bricks screaming at the referee at every opportunity,midfield play to slow and to many square balls will need to up pace at parkhead and play Hudson rb

  16. No wonder Lawwell was smiling last week. £30m on it's way and changes to the CL format that will improve one Scottish club's chances of getting through the qualifiers…….guess who?

    Are King, Murray and Robertson just going to accept this ?

    If we ever win the league again we will go into Europe with zero coefficient, no seeding and therefore no chance of ever getting through the qualifiers.

    Has no one noticed, we are sleep walking into another Taig conspiracy and our board has nothing to say about it.

    It's not just the CL impact, if we qualify for Europa Cup we go in with zero coefficient, as a new team, not seeded and again will never get past the qualifying rounds. ……actually it could cost us money if lots of travel is involved.

    Come on King get a grip ffs.

    • i dont think you need to bother to much about champions league matey will be lucky to stay in this league with tim barton and benny hill in charge in king we trust

    • Yep I noticed that…………..our Board don't have a clue.

      Where's the cash coming from after Xmas?

  17. Why can't we buy a quality CB? Simple question!! We've done our bit in the purchase of SB's and tickets, the board should be straight with us and tell us why we cannot get the player we NEED… If it's cash then fine just let us know. LeScott away to Athens yet we were told he failed a medical then that terms were agreed but he didn't want to uproot his family, now he signs for Athens..!!!! Come on wtf is going on. Sanderos stringing us along too.

  18. So the story about the deal with Lescott falling through because we changed the contract terms is true……did anyone tell Warbs?
    Level 5 is being paid a fortune but have made a liar of the manager now that Lescott is moving to Greece, considerably further from his family than Glasgow.

    We has the failed the medical shit……lie.

    We had family reasons…….lie.

    It wasn't the contract terms ……..lie.

    Warbs has been hung out to dry.

    If we come away from the East End having suffered a drubbing, as is likely, there will be no hiding place for Warburton, King and the Board.

    Effectively 7 points behind then a trip to Pittodrie,,,,,,,,,,,,league campaign will be over before September is out.

  19. hill miller Kieran need to be replaced barton cant play in threeman midfield he needs forester haiday rossiter and he plays behind them as for dave king weres money he promised for players

  20. Perhaps the Craig Levein formation 5 defenders, 5 in midfield will be the answer for the Celtic game.

    Make no mistake we will get humped. Their pace up front will destroy our defence. Warbs has completely lost the plot, his after match observations are predictable and bizarre.

    Don't be surprised if Senderos is signed and thrown straight in even though he's not kicked a ball for months.

    The manager has had a full season to prepare for the SPFL and has continually thanked the board for their financial support………….the Lescott deal fell apart on the financials and the manager chose to parrot the Level 5 line of family issues which we now know, for certain, was an outright lie.
    Perhaps Warbs thought the deal was done but Robertson moved the goalposts behind his back to stop the wage bill going through the roof.

    No one on the Board knows where the money will come from after Xmas to keep the lights on.
    The contributions of those on the Club 1872 monthly DD scheme will be the only major source of income………is this what the guys signed up for, to provide the daily working capital that the Board should be funding?

    This will not end well, defeats to Celtic and the Dons in September will see the end of the league challenge.
    Donald Park was right, it's going to take 5 years plus to compete with Celtic, longer if they get further CL proper qualification and by that time they will be heading for 11 IAR.

    Depressing you bet.

    When the fans are being lied to about the non signing of a player what other porkies are Level 5 , at huge expense to us, promoting.

    Warbs talks about value when signing players then signs a raft of over 30 ' s who between them have no resale value and will have to be replaced next season.

    On the back of King ' s investment promises, more porkies, the fans bought a record number of season tickets, our only source of major income. Annual revenue this year will be around £25m, Celtic ' s will be nearer to £90m.
    There no short, medium or long term financial plan. This should have been the Board's primary task.

    What's going on, there is no evidence whatsoever of the much promised transparency.

    Nomad, listing, share issue…..who knows what's going on?

    None of the board have experience of running a football club………..oh King and Murray, well we know how that worked out!

    Feckin shambles, on and off the park.

    • I believe to get a share listing we need to show an 18 months sustainable revenue model. I am not sure continued soft loans on the promise of some shares would qualify and a feed in from fans does not seem a permanent income stream. Does King really want to show financial transparency like he would have to do if listed. I suspect not.

      I reckon he is happy to deflect from the listing question with the Ashley fight, something he has instigated himself and not in the best interests of Rangers. A decent negotiator would have worked with Ashley to get a better deal but I feel Ashley sussed King out right away. It's a pity we did not. God knows what he is playing at in the Puma row, his comments alone on making his own strips presumably without Puma will be enough for Puma to win any case against us. I just feel King has bitten off far more than he can chew. The only winners will be the solicitors. One thing is for sure we wont see King on the 10th but if we suffer a bad September we will hear about his investment plan for January, too little too late and pretty much the usual BS we hear from him.

  21. Toumani Diagouraga coming in apparently. We can get him for £500k and he can play midfield or CB… Need to nail this one King.

    • I thought he was a defensive mid only, but if he excels in defence I'm all for it.
      All this flak being thrown at Warbs just now is gonna come back to haunt us. It will come good again with Warbs and later on this season we're gonna be singing his praises again, desperate to keep him. But the first good offer that comes from down South for him, he'll remember just how much 'loyalty' we showed him in tough times.

  22. Wow some fans, we are back in the spl for feck sake, give it time, did anyone seriously think we were going to come up here and have it all our own way?? We have quality in the team, injuries haven't helped evidently but when everyone is fit and had a few games under their belt and a bit gelling time, the performances will pick up, on the money front, we knew we had none so why is everyone so uptight, nothing is built in a day folks, let's crawl before we walk and get behind the team…..and to the idiot that rated Barton a 3 you need to lay off the sauce mate, clearly being played in a defensive position where he's not aloud to roam unlike at burnley, he's not going to be creating from back there when that jobs been giving to Forrester or kranjcar, Bartons not been a superstar by any means but a 3?? Just wait till we go to the Tim's patch and a team finally opens up, over confident that their going to give us a spanking and we will out pass, out run and out play them again….sinclairs good but one one man doesn't make a team, it's practically the same team we already beat, no surrender watp

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