“Poor – 4”, “Best player by a country mile – 8” – Rangers player ratings v them

Rangers have lost in a truly underwhelming and mildly crushing Old Firm defeat, Steven Gerrard losing his 100% record at Ibrox in this fixture.

Ibrox Noise takes you through player ratings for an utterly awful afternoon in Govan.

McGregor:

Made some big saves, but had no chance with either goal – McGregor was certainly one of Rangers’ performers and can look himself in the mirror. 7

Tavernier:

Was reduced to crossing early on every attack, and couldn’t make any of them stick. Non-existent as an attacking threat, got behind enemy lines only once, and failed to produce anything with it. At one point he crossed from the half way line. Poor. 4

Goldson:

A couple of good clearing headers, and bailed out his partner near the end in an ultimately futile act, but overall Goldson had a bad match and cost the first goal while repeatedly giving the ball away with bad distribution. Had a fixation for passing wide right to Tavernier and putting it over the captain’s head. 5

Katic:

Did make a little error near the end and got exposed for it, but otherwise another who can hold his head high. Could do nothing for the first goal, was completely exposed by Goldson, but otherwise a reasonable shift. 7

Flanagan:

Not much going forward, as always, but defence and commitment-wise this was a good showing again from Flanno, who got in a few good blocks and won a few 50/50s. Solid. 7

Kamara:

Managed a few reasonable touches and held onto the ball a couple of times, but mostly seemed rushed and lost the ball more often than not. Gave away some cheap fouls and just wasn’t good enough for the shirt. In awful form this season. 5

Davis:

Rangers’ best player by a country mile, Davis was the only man in a blue shirt who seemed to be in control, and had any time on the ball. Used the ball wisely, went on a couple of neat runs and tried to make things happen. 8

Jack:

A decent enough display but was unable to make much happen – Gerrard is trying to make Jack an all-action Barry Ferguson type, but this game didn’t really showcase the success of that evolution. 6

Aribo:

His drought of impact continues, and while his colossal tackle to end Scott Brown’s run was a good sign which got the fans onside, overall Aribo is struggling to make himself heard in this shirt. That multimillion pound player we thought we had isn’t showing his worth. 5

Arfield:

Another one who worked hard as he could but couldn’t affect the match the way he’s capable of, Arfield had some decent moments particularly in the first half but faded dramatically and had next to no impact up front. 5

Defoe:

Starved of any service, Defoe was unable to do much, and what little he did was negligible. He’s suddenly hit some poor form – he was pretty rotten in Paisley too. 5

Subs:

Ojo:

No one seemed enthusiastic at the sight of the Liverpool loanee, and his impotence showed why. He just isn’t creating anything, and while he wins fouls, he seems unable to channel any quality he has into tangible results. Average at best. 4

Morelos:

His first touch on the ball was glorious, his resulting shot the typical v Celtic Morelos we’re used to. Seemed to be playing more as a right winger than a 9 in truth, and his impact at best was just strange. Got the fans geed up though. 5

Jones:

Will be gutted not only to have been benched for this but to have taken so long to come on – he gave Rangers pace and energy on the left, and was the only attacker who seemed capable of making things happen. 6

Manager:

Gerrard shocked everyone with that team selection, packing five midfielders into the system and leaving Defoe up top. It was a gamble, and it was a case of trusting the manager on this one. It’s a gamble which completely failed, and one we don’t even understand his use of. Walter used to pack his Old Firm Rangers with defenders, but Gerrard wanted to win the midfield battle – we don’t oppose that, but we do wonder why he picked this match to try something new when the previous system worked so well at Ibrox v Celtic last season. His defence has been trustworthy recently, why didn’t he trust the system he’s been using of late to decent effect? No, while the players had a total off day, the system was wrong, the selection was wrong, and Stevie will have to take the impending criticism on the chin. He was a big part of this failure. Maybe the biggest. 2