The five black marks against Rangers’ glory

There were technically a few small blots last night on an otherwise excellent night for Glasgow Rangers Football Club, and we wanted to bring some balance to the recent positive coverage by explaining the slight minuses a little.

The first one, obviously, was Borna Barisic’s completely unfortunate OG. The Croat had a brilliant night overall, and was the least deserving to cost Rangers the win, but that’s the way the cookie crumbled and he sadly bundled it over the line. This means Rangers miss out on some bonus cash plus qualifying as group winners.

The second, was the slightly toothless attack – despite dominating much of the ball, once again Rangers were wasteful up front and failed to convert the obvious superiority into goals. Alfredo Morelos’ moment of individual power did get the home side ahead, but we really need to learn to be more clinical on stages like these. Had we done so, Barisic’s OG wouldn’t have mattered.

Ryan Jack’s red card. This was just simply not his fault – Glen Kamara let the side down not once but twice with poor concentration, and Jack was left to pick up the pieces and take two massive yellows for the side, which costs us his services in the last 32’s first leg. At least, the first yellow did. We’re not sure if the second has cost more than that. This was very disappointing and is a big blow. Jack has been gargantuan in the UEL.

Ryan Kent’s slight ineffectiveness. He did play a huge role in Rangers’ goal, but overall he does look like he’s just trying too hard – for the first time, the £7.5M price tag on his head is starting to look like he’s suddenly aware of it, and he’s trying to justify the value of the transfer. He needs to get back to just playing the purity of the game he and we love and not trying to show he’s worth the money.

Loss of circa £750,000. Because Rangers could only draw last night, we lost out on an extra £500,000 for being group winners and roughly £300,000 for the win on the night. It’s not a massive blow, and one we can cope with, but we’d rather have received it.

Overall, it was a very successful night for Rangers, so the above aren’t exactly the end of the world, but we often get accused of being too positive and hysterical or too negative and downbeat, so here’s something in the middle.

Maybe?