“Absolutely beasted it”, “Flat footed” – Rangers player ratings v Hibs

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“Absolutely beasted it”, “Flat footed” – Rangers player ratings v Hibs


After an astonishing night of profligacy at Easter Road, Rangers had to make do with a point. Ibrox Noise takes you through our rates of the best and the worst in Edinburgh.

Allan McGregor:

Had nothing really to do. A few dives for misses and a bit of kicking, but overall a quiet and undemanding night for McGregor. 7

James Tavernier:

Good going forward on the ground, his chronic miss aside, but defending was frequently hopeless and was caught flat footed one more than one occasion. Also lacked many crosses albeit some dead ball delivery was good. 6

Gareth McAuley:

This was the match the NI international came to life – didn’t put a foot wrong, strolled it against in-form strikers and just looked every inch the alpha defender Rangers need. Colossal in the air, and experienced and canny on the deck. Superb, miss aside. We hope his injury is not serious. 10

Connor Goldson:

Absolutely thriving on McAuley next to him, Goldson is regaining his old form and starting to look much more assured again. Looks like he needs the guidance because his reading has got better the past two matches and he seems more physical too. Much better. 9

Borna Barisic:

Just getting better every match – defending didn’t need to be a huge part of his game tonight but what he did there he did well, and going forward his delivery is becoming a missile. What a left peg this boy has. 8

Ryan Jack:

Composed and dominant, Jack did his purposeful work quietly, and absolutely beasted it in midfield. Several shot-saving tackles showed him at his best, and he looks in this form back to his peak of earlier in the season. 9

Lassana Coulibaly:

We’ll give him his dues, this was better from him – seems to be drifting away from being a destroyer and becoming a marauder now. A physical unit who does better work in advanced midfield. Quiet first half but came more to life in the second. A much-improved display from Coulibaly. 7

Scott Arfield:

Other than one or two misplaced passes, Arfield was perfectly cast as the link between midfield and attack, and did an excellent job supporting both. A bit wasteful in shooting, Arfield was otherwise a reliable lynchpin and, again, we hope his injury is not serious. 8

Eros Grezda:

A good match we felt from Grezda – again, couldn’t take his chances, but worked like a dog in defence and attack, and is looking more and more the part with every match he gets. 7

Daniel Candeias:

A pitiful first half with a number of diabolical attempts at passes, and anonymous, but much more involved in the second half – but definitely seems to have lost something on the crossing. They’re just not doing much damage these days, and often, neither is he. Did, however, save Joe Worrall’s blushes and prevented a surefire one on one. 6

Alfredo Morelos:

Did everything but score. Guilty of a bit of selfishness occasionally but tore Hibs’ backline to shreds. Ambrose will not relish the return match in a week. Should have scored, of course, but torrential otherwise. Did a wonderful job of not biting any of Hibs’ bait. 9

Subs:

Ross McCrorie:

Rangers were no weaker for his introduction and that says a lot for how reliable he was. A fine second half display from the Auchenhowie graduate. 7

Joe Worrall:

One absolute howler of a passback where Candeias spared his blushes, but otherwise actually a very good display from the Forest loanee and nothing got past him. No Gareth McAuley but a good shift. 7

Glenn Middleton:

Had no time and made no impact. N/A

Manager:

Steven Gerrard set his team up exactly how we suggested, albeit with Coulibaly in McCrorie’s place, and the match played out exactly as we predicted – the one difference was Hibs’ total lack of clinical finishing by contrast to their sharper work against Celtic. A lot of credit goes to how Gerrard set up his back six, again, as we said, by going 4-2-3-1 and reverting to 4-5-1 when out of possession. In short, he got this match right and put simply he was let down by his players who could not convert. The blame on this one has to be the men on the pitch for not taking their chances. 9

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16 COMMENTS

  1. WOW!!10 for McAuley?He was ok. He got caught for pace and let Shaw in and he missed a sitter!!Plus he only played 60 mins. Very high ratings for Alfredo,Grezda and Arfield??

  2. Best performance we have had in weeks. Poor in front of goal, can't blame morelos for taking chances on but totally frustrating when he misses and there's someone in a far better position than him. Poor decision making at times, a bit of composure, less selfish and he could have laid on a couple of tap ins! Macaulay and Goldson superb, Ryan Jack totally outstanding, only thing missing from his game was the winning goal! 11/10!! Tav and candieas poor! Mcrorie done well but Halliday was a better option to take arfields position…overlooked for his natural position again!

  3. Oh AYE they're ALL, brilliant. Pity though, not ONE of them, can get the ball in the back of the opposition's net. What was it, 18 or 19 shots and NOT ONE goes in?? But OF COURSE it was a 'great display'. ??

    • I'm with you Joe on this a lot of chances wasted this game could come back to bite us in the arse. I think next week's return will be interesting and if it's the story as last night all misfiring I reckon the spponburners will sneak away with the 3 points from us .

  4. Bit suprised by the ratings for McCauley and Goldson. They good but were they really that good? Otherwise close enough. We really need to be more clinical or its going to cost us.
    Was a bit suprised by how we set up but, early stages aside, it worked very well.
    I would have Halliday, McCrorie or Rossiter ahead of Coulibaly every time. I feel like we're starting a man down every time I see his name on the team sheet. Tries his best but no end product.
    Grezda is improving slowly but surely. He just lacks belief. He's got the pace and the skills. Would love to see him just put the head down and get at the fullback every time.
    Really suprised we brought on Middleton instead of Lafferty. Surely we were chasing the win and 3 points instead of the cautious approach?

  5. Generally agree as this was a much better performance and we did everything but score .Can`t agree with McAuley getting a 10 , nobody deserved a 10 .Our best player was definitely Ryan Jack .

  6. Thought we played well. Totally dominated a decent Hibs team on their own patch. Remember they outplayed Ceptic at the weekend which is probably more than we will manage.
    Our lack of cutting edge is a real concern and I don't see it bring resolved with the players we currently have. In our last 2 games we've had 35 corners and 34 shots with one goal to show for it. That's one goal in every 69 scoring opportunities which must be the worst ratio in world football.
    But we also can't get away from the fact that once again we were robbed. Hibs should've been down to 10 men and despite what Gerrard says you will never see a more clear cut penalty. The referee was perfectly placed to see both incidents, clearly saw both incidents, but still chose to ignore what he saw. Not much was made of the perfectly good second goal we scored against Dundee because we played so badly but that's 2 away wins turned into 2 draws with 4 points lost. These points could be crucial come the end of the season.

    • Bang on Robrob we Wiz robbed Refereeing again totally unacceptable ..Stonewall Penalty…Young Porteous should been off…by the way he's cocky and will get some of his own medicine soon .

  7. Bill we should not be making refs keep that for those from the East End your actually sounding like one we bang 3 or 4 goals in a game no refs to blame so I blame ourselves.

    • Let's not blame the referee Scud. They say these things iron themselves out over a season. So I'm looking forward to the second half of the season when all these decisions start to come in our favour. We've had ONE lucky break at Tynecastle with an offside goal but I could list a whole stream of decisions that have went against us.

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