“Rangers class – 9” – Rangers rated v Hearts at Tynecastle

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“Rangers class – 9” – Rangers rated v Hearts at Tynecastle
Clement looking happy enough here! (Credit Rangers FC)

Once again Rangers labour in the Scottish Premiership, just about sneaking out of Tynecastle with the three points.

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Ibrox Noise puts together our ratings for another difficult Rangers display under Philippe Clement:

Butland:

One of two Rangers Class signings this summer, another couple of huge saves from this giant in goal as Butland pulled out yet more brilliance. Pity most of the rest of the team falls a long way short of his quality. 9

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Tavernier:

Mixed night – was not at his best in general, but had two giant moments – amazing block on the line to prevent a goal, and a stunning assist for the winner. Crossing was again terrible but his general distribution was decent – a lot of excellent long balls. He was frankly the match winner. 8

Goldson:

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Boy are we losing patience with this guy. Everyone knows how we feel about this joker at the back, but his form currently is non-existent. He’s not horrible, but he’s nowhere near at the level needed. Was inconsequential again. 6

Balogun:

Again again AGAIN did all the heavy lifting, 11 clearances to Goldson’s 4, one of our backline actually works for the team and it ain’t Goldson. 8

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Ridvan:

A difficult night called in from the cold for Ridvan, but he actually did ok. He grew into the match, and never hid. Being criticised by some for looking a bit lost, but in his first match in forever he can hold his head high. 7

Lundstram:

Tidy, involved, and actually showed his pace as well, he prevented a certain chance for Shankland by simply outpacing and outmuscling him. A solid evening from the midfielder. 7

Lawrence:

Absolutely and utterly shocking from Lawrence, was constantly losing the ball and then got injured and is probably out for months now. We have tried to be generous with him lately, but this was very, very poor even before he was hauled off. N/A

Sima:

Busy – once again his running and passing is a mess, and while he works hard it’s clear left wing just isn’t for him. Instead, he’s a striker. A pure goalscorer and he won this one again. Time for him to go to the 9 slot. 7

Cantwell:

Bright display in truth, a lot of running, a lot of nice touches, and while nothing really impacted the match, he does look a bit more like his old self. Passing was crisp and he didn’t waste much. 7

McCausland:

Like v St Mirren, busy and tenacious but absolutely no product here at all. He’s experiencing the transition from rising star to starter and we don’t think he’s shining the past two matches the way he did when there was no expectation on him. But we’ll be light on him, not fair to be too harsh. 6

Danilo:

Oh dear. We are 100% back to the old one that choked repeatedly in front of open goals and had no composure. He had a wee run of goals but that Danilo is gone, and we have a wasteful one in his place. Very poor. 4

Subs:

Cifuentes:

Actually didn’t do a lot wrong – got up to speed reasonably quickly (despite being caught cold for the sub itself) and held himself together. Big contribution in the middle of breaking up Hearts advances a lot. 7

And the rest of the subs didn’t impact the match much, aside one good run and cross from Roofe.

Manager:

Clement picked a fairly strong side overall, but the malaise of the past few matches remains. He spouted utter rubbish before the match in his interview (his media displays have gone to pot very quickly) and his team just didn’t look settled in this one. Hearts very much had control and but for Butland, they’d have been out of sight before Sima put the visitors ahead. In truth, while it’s a clear 4-2-3-1 it doesn’t look much better than Beale’s nonsense at the moment and it was hanging on for dear life at the end – it seems quite static. Two scrappy wins in a row are obviously better than not winning, but Clement desperately needs to find ways to make this team better. January? Tactics? Who knows. That’s his job, not ours. 6

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