Rangers got recent poor form slightly back on track today following an eventually decent win over high-flying St Mirren, and Ibrox Noise brings you our scores on the day:
Butland:
Strangely being voted among the MOTM as we speak by Ibrox Noise readers, Butland had a quiet game – a few saves, true, but nothing major, and he’s had bigger fish to fry than this one. 6
Tavernier:
Literally lived the entire match in St Mirren’s half, so you’d assume he was chucking thousands of crosses in. No, just 10 attempts, 5 accurate, and did very little defensively. In truth, he wasn’t overly needed in that capacity anyway. 6
Goldson:
About as non-descript a match as he’d ever had, a couple of tackles and a clearance or two, but as usual, not really involved and spent his time walking the ball up and trying to start moves. 6
Balogun:
As per usual, all the heavy lifting from the Nigerian – loads of big clearances and tackles, and while he was done for pace at one point, he recovered it with a brilliant slider. Massively dominant in the air. 8
Barisic:
About the same as Tav, mostly sitting in Saints’ half and throwing in a modest number of crosses, but quiet really and wasn’t involved as much as he can be. 6
Lundstram:
Keeps working hard – offered a lot defensively and going forward, and covered Lawrence well. No one passed the ball better. Tidy and strong. 7
Lawrence:
Actually had a decent match in front of Lunny, lots of tackles, and while his passing wasn’t so vintage he can be happy with only his 5th career appearance in that position. 7
Sima:
Until he scored, he was being ineffective as usual lately, but found his shooting boots twice with two excellent finishes. Passing was rotten, and he didn’t dribble much at all, but it’s hard to argue with a brace. 7
McCausland:
This wasn’t the best he’s ever played – lots of energy early on but he wasn’t able to make anything really stick and was more admirable for his industry and tenacity than pure quality. 6
Cantwell:
After all the controversy, this was an admission from Clement that he screwed up with Cantwell – he also offered the boy an apology by giving him a late substitution ovation. He played him, finally, in the right slot, and hey presto, it’s the best he’s played this season. This might just have saved Cantwell’s Rangers career. Two assists, albeit the first one wasn’t really intended that way, but the second was. Nice to see a bit of last season’s Cantwell back. 8
Dessers:
Anonymous. You can see him try, but there’s just zero quality here, and his opening header with the goal beckoning going wide summed up his conviction. Came off early and we just don’t see him turning this around. 5
Subs:
Danilo:
Might as well have been Dessers, the Brazilian’s form has nosedived and only half of his passes stuck. Managed to get a shot in but his sparkling run of recent is AWOL. 5
The rest of the subs were just for minutes.
Manager:
We didn’t really like the team selection on paper, but Lawrence deep did work well even if the performance as a whole was very subdued in a quiet Ibrox – it was laboured, and if Sima hadn’t smashed home on 46 minutes, we don’t know if we’d have won this one. Second half was a bit better, and more chances were made, but there was a real overall flatness here – but give the Buddies some credit. They have a great manager, they’re extremely well organised and they’re fourth for a reason. The selection of Dessers didn’t work out, but Clement did effectively admit his errors recently re: Cantwell/McCausland. 6