“Silly play”, “Outstanding today” – who shone and who didn’t for Rangers at Rugby Park?

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“Silly play”, “Outstanding today” – who shone and who didn’t for Rangers at Rugby Park?


After the latest triumphant display from our lads in blue, here’s some Ibrox Noise ratings for you to have a look at.

Wes Foderingham:

We’ve never been fans of this guy, being harsher than most – but guess what – he was outstanding today. One world class McGregor-esque save and a lot of good commanding, this was Wes raising his game in light of the number one in his place. Very, very good indeed 9/10

James Tavernier:

A little mixed – good going forward and wonderful assist for Morelos, but struggled a little with Jordan Jones defensively and was caught a few times in no-man’s land – also cost Rangers a goal indirectly with his silly play in the opposition half. Maybe not his best afternoon 6/10

Connor Goldson:

Shaky start on the plastic pitch, he was exposed once or twice – didn’t look happy at all on the surface, but grew into the match and got comfortable and dominant as it went on. Still a solid overall display, but definitely his worst. Which is high praise really 7/10

Nikola Katic:

This guy will run through lava for Rangers. Absolutely love his heart, attitude, and willingness to roll his sleeves up and do what it takes. A great display with plenty of desire 8/10

Borna Barisic:

Another who was a little hamstrung by the pitch, he didn’t get forward as much as we’ve seen before, and looked a little at 6s and 7s with the occasion – one or two poor passes. He was ok, but not great 6/10

Andy Halliday:

This guy is shutting everyone up. Except us, who told everyone else to back the guy. He had a great game again, solid in the middle, didn’t give the ball away and worked hard for his team. Really stepped up. 8/10

Ovie Ejaria:

He remains out of position but actually played quite well – seems to be adapting his game to the physical style his manager wants, and while we don’t get a lot of creativity from him, we do seem to get neat composed play in the middle. 7/10

Scott Arfield:

Another one we love, he just keeps on plugging away – a strong, experienced reliable campaigner, he uses the ball so well and always knows where others are and where he should be. A truly fantastic signing who’s maybe a little underrated even if Jones absolutely turned him for the goal. 8/10

Ryan Kent:

As the game stretched he started to get joy and looked dangerous – but he’d struggled earlier until then. Give him space he can do damage, but in tight congested areas he falters deeply. We still aren’t sure if we truly like this guy or not 7/10

Jamie Murphy:

A victim of the pitch, all we can say his potential season-ending injury is a sure sign artificial surfaces have to be banned.

Alfredo Morelos:

This lad is blooming under Stevie G. Killie just couldn’t handle him, and his hat trick was well deserved. Should have had four but for a scuffed finish and a non-goal. Absolutely brilliant and was so physical deeper on the park working for his team mates. Growing into a perfect striker and on this showing we have no hesitation in expecting £20M and not a penny less if we’re to sell 10/10

Subs:

Daniel Candeias:

Some fine crossing, great defending, and good pressing in the middle made his unexpected cameo a very fine outing. 8/10

Ross McCrorie:

A robust and simple display, wasn’t on for long but did the basics well 6/10

Umar Sadiq:

Didn’t look interested at all quite honestly – clearly hated the surface and it was like Bambi on Ice unfortunately. 3/10

Stevie G:

Guy can do no wrong at the moment. He selects Wes, Andy Halliday, Ovie Ejaria and has no Coulibaly, Jack, McGregor, Rossiter etc and the players who stepped in delivered as well as the first choices. The system is fluid, dynamic and is working wonderfully and he’s motivating the players to give him it all. We can’t find fault here… 10/10

Wow, we’re truly stunned by how well the SG era is going. Long may this continue.

NB – a number of readers seem appalled by our Tavernier rating. The reason for this score was we credited him with the assists (apparently we missed an ‘s’), but his defending was not good at all, and a revert back to the old Tavernier, out of position and constantly caught – plus a massive mistake led  to Killie’s goal. Jones had him completely on toast the whole match. But if that’s what the arguments are about now, we’re in a much better place. Much rather everyone melts over the score of a player than boardroom piffle, manager credibility and financial peril.

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29 COMMENTS

  1. a little harsh on tav i think, we scored 3 goals and he set the 3 up with 3 assists, ejaria and kent look the weak links in my opinion

  2. wee morelos im happy to say is continually proving me wrong,the difference n his attitde is remarkable.well done wee man.

  3. To many players get bad injuries on these pitches, we lost Waghorn through the same pitch, i am sure other clubs have had the same problems, but no doubt we will get the usual backlash telling us there is nothing with them.

  4. That pitch was a disgrace. It was like playing on a beach. Kilmarnock has obviously set the pitch up for the 1st half where it was most sandy at the right back and center of our penalty box. The only good thing was it also gave them problems with that set up. But really 3 injury’s all cause of the pitch. If the ball wasn’t bouncing around hen Katic might not have had such a sore one, everyone seemed to struggle on it and especially our taller players who were slipping everywhere…

  5. stevie g's comment to robbie savage was just legendary, im not obsessed with celtic im only obsessed about RANGERS! f**** class.

  6. Strongly disagree with Tavernier marking. 3 assists, 1 for each goal, yet Candeias with none is marked higher.
    Feel that is unfair, although I agree with the other scores in general.

    • If we were to rate players on how many assists or goals they made then McGregor and co would be screwed wouldn’t they..

  7. I would like to see us go for ash taylor, great addition for around 400/500k. could be a real bargain and has all the attributes needed for a cb.

  8. Those pitches should be outlawed in the professional game!! Well bugger me who would’ve thought it IN giving the Buffalo 10? Finally starting to see what some of us having been seeing since he signed..
    That’s down to the lad himself and all his hard graft pre season and getting leaner. Not to mention a Gaffer that believes in his ability..
    Not just the Buffalo but the full Squad are reaping their rewards from the Staff…

    #LetsGo

  9. Arfield was shocking at their goal. Standing off Jones as he turned then poking a feeble wrong foot in a petetic attempt at a challenge. Yes Arfield can look good at times but his discipline in defending is often poor and he gives the ball away cheaply. Must do better.

  10. Arfield defends like a pub team midfielder giving away a sloppy goal to allow Killie back in… 8/10

    Candeias runs and runs off the ball but shows very little quality on the ball…. 8/10

    Tav has big hand in 3 goals…. 6/10 (same as late sub McCrorie) …Deary Me !

    I must have been watching a different game.

  11. 3 goals 3 assists by Tav, 6/10 is laughable. Should not be playing on these surfaces, but another great performance from the team.

    Onward and upward……Lets Go!!!

  12. Fair and accurate assessment of Andy Halliday. Guy is due a break. I for one would love it if we are singing his name after 2 Sept given the Hampden debacle. One of our own!

  13. Your comments on Tav are absolutely ridiculous and I suggest you watch the game again on TV before issuing a correction. That said, nice to see you swallowing one regarding Fod – his performances both on and off the pitch today were exemplary. I suspect if Greegsy had turned in that performance, you would have awarded a 10. Onwards and upwards…….

    • We have no airs or graces here BB – we have our opinions and we've 'swallowed one' over players many times. We'd rather Rangers were great than we were right. But on this occasion we stick by the Tav score. Like it or lump it!

  14. Tav was really good again. it was Arfield that got skinned for the goal yes Tav was the furthest man forward for their goal but that's his game and the DM's should cover him when he goes forward or the opposite full back tuck in help the two centre half. we would lose so much attacking threat if he wasn't in the team. don't agree with his rating he was far better than Barasic on the other side.

  15. I like this forum, but I'm going to throw a bit of debate because I now feel this constant bashing of James Tavernier in this new era is starting to wear thin. I think we can all agree that he's not the greatest with his defending positionally when hes caught out up the park, which has caused some goals, I think yesterday he lost the ball 3 times in the opposition half. But to rate the guy a 6 is an absolute disgrace considering he did what he's being asked to do by Gerrard and made all 3 goals for Morelos.

    We play an attacking brand of football specifically down the right channel and he's our key player for that job whether you like it or not. 3 assists and you've gave him a 6? I think if he scored as well yesterday it probably would have been downgraded to a 5 'cause hes out of position'.

    Tavernier has had 44 assists and 29 goals in 148 appearances.

    73 in 148… he's contributing nearly 1 goal every 2 games.

    As much as he will never be Maldini, his importance to our team is vital for getting goals. He does far more for the team than any Rangers player offensively. It's part of who we are and how play. He will never be a perfect defender, but this season we have Mcgregor Katic Goldson and our selected defensive mid in place to allow him this freedom.

    Give the guy a solid 8 that he deserves and stop with this agenda against the Captain. Rating him a 6 is laughable when he helped win us the game.

    Until the day he causes a goal every 2 games then come back to challenge him but for me, 3 goals and 3 assists this season so far with 4 clean sheets from 9 is remarkable, even if he does contribute to us conceding a goal or 2, the positives far outweigh the negatives.

    Lay off him chaps, or would you rather the bombarding Flanagan be the creative force for us at right back to the detriment of the team?

  16. Improvement??? The guys been doing it for 3 years this isn't an over night thing.

    You bash the guy in plenty of posts and I think harshly. This is just yet another one. Tavernier will never win the guy over for whoever writes the posts on him.

    *Correction – Tavernier 8/10

    Go on IN, you can give him praise where praise is due it will look better on you! Anyway, every other rating was near enough what I would have said. Well done on that.

  17. Dear IN, I think the consensus on here is that Tavernier earned an 8. You may disagree, football is all about opinions, and while I don't agree with Coco that you are attacking him, I think Coco's mail is an excellent justification of a higher score.

    Hell, who else in our squad has anything like his stats? Basically 1 in 2. I think he is a much better defender than any of the attack minded players whose stats are half as good as his. Morelos isn't asked to defend as deep as Tav, block crosses and mark attackers. But his stats aren't as good. Ditto for Murphy and Candeias. Nobody else has any attacking stats worth discussing now that Windass has gone – I have raised concerns about this before – so Tav is not our best defender, but is our best attacker while still being a decent defender.

    Ok, IN, your move. Please raise his score, or back up the 6 🙂

    • I concede, maybe I was a bit harsh on IN with their criticisms on Tavernier – as much as their score on Tavernier was a harsh one – he's probably over a whole hard done by more so than other players because of who he is. I just don't see how he had a worse game than Ejaria who for me doesn't contribute much.

      But that's the beauty of debate, keep up the good work IN!

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