Mythbusting – revealing the truth about Rangers’ draw at Livi

Rangers dropped some needed points yesterday and Ibrox Noise wanted to mythbust the facts about this match.

We’re hearing a lot of ‘Kamara stunk’ and ‘Tavernier did nothing’ etc, so we wanted to show the reality of what those players factually did out on that pitch and see what was true and what wasn’t.

1: “Kamara was terrible.”

Ok, for a start, Kamara played as a central midfielder yesterday, not a defensive one, as demonstrated by his heatmap:

His passing level was good, at 87%, and he was on the ball second only to Jack for the most touches. He managed two key passes, 2 dribbles, and won one foul. He was relieved of the ball just once despite all the possession. Glen Kamara did not have a bad game.

2: “Tavernier was useless.”

No one crossed the ball more than James Tavernier, with 16, and 6 of those hit their targets. He managed 10 long balls, 3 of which got there, but his passing level was fairly modest at only 75%.

His heat map shows he spent pretty much the whole match in Livi’s half. In reality, his performance was decent if not incredible.

3: “Jack had a bad match.”

Actually, no he didn’t, even in our eyes he looked decent. The heatmap shows he was playing a DM role behind Kamara, and as an attacking force he managed a shot, and two key passes. He hit nearly 90% passing range, and his range passing was outstanding, with 19 attempted and 14 hitting their aim.

4: “Rangers didn’t shoot, or had no creativity.”

This was partly true. There were just 3 shots on target from Rangers, but with 23 attempted. Morelos and Kent were particularly guilty of being wasteful with their shooting, with 10 missed attempts between them. The creativity aspect is not backed up by the facts. Rangers did make chances, they just didn’t take them.

5: “Livi parked the bus, but they didn’t defend well. Rangers were just terrible.”

Well not really true. They managed 25 successful tackles, the same number of successful interceptions, and they cleared the ball 49 times. They also blocked 9 shots and ‘only’ produced 10 fouls, which isn’t half bad for a team who’s supposed to be defending badly.

It was the definition of parking the bus, yes, but they did so extremely well, and while Rangers were poor, credit has to be also given to Gary Holt and his players for concentrating that intensely for the full 90 minutes.

Our point is Gerrard’s job is to break these teams down with tactical changes, and shifts. He failed to do that yesterday, but while the players hardly shone, the numbers do demonstrate they weren’t actually as horrible as some might think.

The tactics didn’t help, and neither did Livi’s stout commitment to their own plan.

Much to ponder.