After Ibrox Noise revealed the truth about James Tavernier, that indeed he’s actually a tonne better than many fans think, Steven Gerrard affirmed that stance and hinted that Tavernier is an absolute mainstay first-pick and his first name on the sheet.
The manager covered a lot of bases with the club’s official TV channel and admitted that while winning something as captain would probably earn him the credit he believes the RB deserves from the fans, the reality is his performances should already do so, and indeed, as we demonstrated in a number of entries in recent weeks, Tavernier’s stats are among the best.
Gerrard said:
“Tav is a huge player. He doesn’t get the credit he deserves, I don’t think, from our own supporters. I don’t think he gets the credit he deserves from outside. I think he needs to go and win something as a captain, as a leader, to really get the credit that he deserves. But to see him on a daily basis, I am certainly someone that really appreciates him for us.”
Up till a number of weeks ago, we too were harsh on the wide man, but when we did an in-depth look at his statistics over a number of key areas, we were surprised and impressed by how consistent he actually is.
Defensively he is a tonne better than he’s ever been given credit for. Why?
Think about a striker. 10 shots. One is a goal. That striker is celebrated for that one goal, and the 9 misses are ignored and forgotten.
But in defence the dynamic is different. 9 clearances, 9 tackles – but the 10th and ‘failed’ attempt of each led to a major chance or even a goal for the opponent. That defender is slated and castigated from pillar to foot. So, 18 perfectly good defensive acts, but two mistakes. Meanwhile the 9 misses from the striker are entirely overlooked in favour of his goal.
The dynamic in defence is very different to the expectations in attack – and mistakes cost 10x as much.
Now, you might say, look at Borna, look how much better he is. And Borna is world class, true.
But no one said Tavernier was. But he certainly isn’t the rotten waste of a shirt a lot of fans want to allege that he is.
And in truth he only needs his manager to see that, and it appears he does.
Agreed. How many goal saving tackles do we expect our strikers to make? Well compare that to the goals and assists we get from our full backs and you can see why I regard them as wingers who also defend rather than full backs
He’s our captain who has admitted he cannot handle the pressure of being a ranger never a captain. Did you not remember his comments in the match programme before the Hamilton game. Hes shouldn’t be a rangers players never mind the captain. We won’t win anyhing with him as captain he doesn’t have the bottle for it
HAS BEEN SHIT SINCE HE CAME NEARLY SIX YEARS AGO SHOULD NOT BE IN THE RANGERS TEAM AND SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN MADE THE CAPTAIN WORST CAPTAIN IN RANGERS HISTORY AND AS FOR GERRARD WQE WILL WIN FUCK ALL UNDER THIS CUNT EITHEWR WITH HIS NEGATIVE TACTICS
I see where you are coming from IN but can’t completely agree with you. Everyone can make a mistake but some of the mistakes made by Tavernier are just plain stupid mistakes that good players wouldn’t make. Also the quality of his crossing is very poor. Sure he provides assists with his crossing but you can’t ignore the poor quality of 15-20 crosses even if one does end up in the net. I do think there is a good footballer in there but these 2 things really annoy me.
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