“Thoroughly underwhelming – 5”, “Rangers’ best player – 8” – player ratings from Rugby Park

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“Thoroughly underwhelming – 5”, “Rangers’ best player – 8” – player ratings from Rugby Park


As Rangers’ colossally hard-fought opening win over Killie comes to a close, Ibrox Noise brings you man-by-man ratings of the personnel who kept up the Ibrox men’s stunning opening season fixture record. And managed to crack Killie at their own patch in the league for the first time since 2011.

Foderingham:

He didn’t actually have a tonne to do here – good footwork again though, and caught quite a lot and mostly tightly. One or two weaker catches/spills but overall, solid. 7

Tavernier:

Modest performance in both defence and attack with a lack of linkup and his increasingly poor crossing – until, that is, a fine effort from the corner led to a goal. Looks like he’s missing Candeias, a lot. 6

Goldson:

Aerially soaked up quite a few bits and bobs, and was useful defensively for the most part bar being exposed too much early on – but his goal was a tremendous show of hunger and power and not even BIG BAD KIRK could foul his way to stopping him. 7

Katic:

He was ok – he made one or two big errors, one of which should have cost a goal, but attack-wise his heading was a bit better. And he got a lot of the ball, but both he and Goldson were exposed a lot in the first half by repeated lobbed balls in behind. 6

Barisic:

Absolutely howling. Has no impact again, and but for maybe two reasonable crosses, just did nothing of note. Rangers aren’t the team for him, and the SPL isn’t the league for him. He’ll never get it. We’re done here. 3

Davis:

Off colour, frankly. Looking more like the off-form Davis of early this year, something hasn’t been right with him the past few matches and he’s making more errors and fouls since the split ended. It wasn’t great from him. 5

Jack:

Impressive performance – steady as a rock, slightly lacking in an attacking sense but made up for it with vigorous tracking and solid defending. By some distance Rangers’ best midfielder. 7

Aribo:

Thoroughly underwhelming, bar two admittedly fine runs, both of which led to potent shots. Otherwise looked slow for most of the game, and while he still used the ball cleanly, and won quite a few tussles, the strolling colossus he’s been in midfield in recent weeks was most definitely AWOL – we hope he gets used to the SPL soon because while not quite a rabbit in headlights, he was clearly not up to the speed of the match. 5

Arfield:

Quiet from the Canada international, in truth. Worked hard enough but looked tired, and while his goal was poacher’s instinct, it was an Arfield who looks like he needs a really long rest. Still not up to fitness and we wonder if more minutes really is the way to get it. Looks tired mentally more than physically. 6

Ojo:

The other SPL debutant summer signing, and rather than being selfish or selfless, he was just ineffectual. Struggled with the ball, couldn’t link up with Tavernier to any major effect, and just, at this point looks like yet another Ovie Ejaria. Disappointing. 5

Morelos:

Jack aside, Rangers’ best player. Sure, he was a bit dumb with one or two ‘physical’ moments, but his ball-winning, fighting, creativity, and shooting were all sharp, and he looked like he was actually playing for the team. When he plays like this, he looks like a team player and an asset. Solid. 8

Subs:

Jones:

Actually reasonable when he came on, a bright moment or two, and handled the crowd’s reaction just fine. 6

Stewart:

No real impact.

Manager:

Steven Gerrard’s team selection didn’t seem to be the right one for this match, but 3 points vindicates the manager at a notoriously hard venue. His men didn’t deliver in this 90 minutes, frankly, but a couple of clinical moments were the difference between winners and also-rans. He won’t be happy with the overall performance, but he will be happy with the never-say-die attitude – this was a momentous 3 points, and while we must improve, Gerrard will know that, and hopefully the cohesion will come. 7

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12 COMMENTS

  1. Firstly, I will take the 3 points anytime. We played poorly and still won, that's something we hardly did last season.
    As anticipated, Ojo came out with the ridiculous statement that we are the best team in the league. I knew he would find the SPFL tough, a totally different beast and he looked totally lost out there today, utterly ineffective. He has the skill, but seemed to have lost the bottle to use it, same to Aribo too. Hopefully they will adjust and get with the programme!
    Goldson was lucky Brophy did not score his chance as the big fella let the striker in for a great chance, but will forgive him due to his goal.
    Got to agree about BB, he just does not get our game, I'd put Halliday in before him.
    Up to the last minute goal, we were awful. No urgency, no work rate, no desire to get the second goal, trying to slow the game down, and what happened? The opposition score, bloody typical.
    Apart from our winning goal, the rest of the game was the same shit, different day.
    I took no hope away from todays game, as Aribo and Ojo were clueless, welcome to the real game lads, time to toughen up and show us your metal!!! We soooo need a quality power house striker!!!

  2. Always very harsh on barisic. Ever think why he had a bad game? Did he have any support on the left hand side? Got a cpl of crosses in but most of the time his only option was a pass inside or back. Played better in the 2nd when he had a winger for support. Wasn't great mind but the hockey pitch for a football pitch didn't help anybody today

  3. Mostly agree with ratings. I have been defending Barisic for a while but to be honest he is looking like a liability now. Overall it was much like the Progress match, lots of passing about in the midfield but very little imagination in final 3rd. Happy with result but another disappointing performance.

  4. 3 points is the main thing short term but that was nowhere near good enough for a club aiming at a league title. Killie lost to a pub team recently FFS. An entire season of building time in the spl with no success and then started the season with those two games against Progres and today against Killie? It is not good enough. Immediate improvement needed with no more slips between now and Christmas.

    Put it like this if the bheasts in the East had started their season like that we'd be pissing ourselves at them.

  5. you gave tav 6, what fucking game were you watching, ok 2 crosses were good, rest of the game he was totally shite, go with a back 3 and drop him

  6. Killie shortened thier pitch today as with thier support which is a pity because with ten thousand more fans and the silence would have been deafening as Goldson headed home in 90+1. That's the best i can say. Big room for improvement. Sure it will come though.

    • I understand that Kilmarnock had to make their pitch bigger to meet UEFA requirements for their Europa League tie. All they did was put it back to their regular size.

  7. Same old shit I'm afraid. We got out of jail with late equaliser but if we don't kill teams off we will drop silly points like last season. We have to play at a higher tempo and cut out the unnecessary passing. And we need to learn HOW to pass. Far too often we roll passes across the pitch so slowly that any benefit from the pass is lost because the opposition have simply adjusted across. The ball should be zipped around the pitch. As Kilmarnock pushed forward more in the second half we should've been able to break quickly and get beyond their attacking players. Instead we strolled about knocking square passes around the back 4 and let their players get back into position. Unless something drastic happens I've seen enough today to make me think we are playing for second place.

  8. True blue, Can i correct your error? Killie shortened their carpet! Shocking state of affairs that professional clubs are permitted to get away with this. The game is played on grass so get these teams out of top flight or enforce a bloody suitable pitch.

  9. Davis and Jack controlled the game but as always seems to happen at Kilmarnock it was all too slow and " safe" , no zip on the passes and no imagination .I agree Barisic was poor again but Ojo was worse , no right foot to cross in the first half and no football sense to link up when he went over to the left .Jones or Stewart should have replaced him earlier .I thought Tav had another shocker although his two corners helped win the game for us .Aribo had a poor first half but I thought he got better as the game went on and finished just about our best player .Don`t get what you are saying about Katic and Goldson , for me they were completely untroubled in the first half although they lost their men a couple of times in the second half.

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