The staggering stats from last night’s victory over Ross County have been laid bare, with not only a truly stunning 43 shots from the home side, but a record-breaking 19 saves from George Wickens, a new benchmark in the Premiership era spanning 11 years.
Yes, since 2013, no goalkeeper had made 19 saves in the same match, a bewildering number.
Of course, as we’ve observed on Ibrox Noise, none of those saves were stunning. There were some good saves, yes, but nothing remarkable – unfortunately Rangers’ wastefulness in front of goal with those 43 shots is a major reason Wickens didn’t have to work spectacularly hard to make the-near 20 saves.
But it’s still a record, and shows how flabbergastingly one-sided this match actually was, and how frustrating it is that the team couldn’t be more clinical.
It does just show how Rangers really, REALLY did need that striker in January.
Philippe Clement is being supportive to his players and saying the shooting was not bad, and extolling the workrate of his team – we back up both of these statements in truth.
The workrate was top notch, and while the bombastic start did fade, the team didn’t stop tracking, grafting, shifting, and running.
It was just that finishing that while ‘not bad’ also ‘wasn’t great’ and left us a little high and dry after a match we should have put out of sight inside 30 minutes.
But we do also offer Wickens some credit here – he broke an SPL 11-year record so clearly he had a strong game, with a host of claims in there too as well as the saves.
The big issue is Rangers don’t have forward men who were able to put him under the kind of pressure he’d crack under – no big bustling target man or sharp 9.
Dessers and Silva are what we have, and no amount of regret over the lack of Shankland or signing someone in the window will undo it.
We must forge forward with the Portuguese and Nigerian, and hope the finishing follows.
Wickens should not have had the chance to break that record.
But end of the day, Rangers now sit clean at the top of the table having levelled out everything – there is nothing to separate us from Celtic, aside momentum.
Rangers are on the way up, Celtic are on the way down.
It really shouldn’t be overly long before we’re clear on our own at the top.
I just dont think we ever get enough men in the box. How many balls did we put across the box last night that had no one there to pick them up and take the shot at goal, i counted a few any way. County had 7-8 men in the box and we had 2-3 in the box Not including set pieces, looking at open play), why are our players so scared to get into the box, why do we need 7 or 8 men outside the box if the opposition are camped in their box.
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