And no, it’s not Philippe Clement! New stats have confirmed Rangers’ most vulnerable area is indeed on the right side of the box, with opposition teams getting more possession and joy there than they do v Celtic.
Opta’s data is rather telling, and as the image below shows, over the course of the season, Rangers suffer on the right of defence of just 44% possession, with Celtic getting 53%.
Interestingly, for all the criticism James Tavernier gets for ‘being out of position’, he’s not that far behind the options Celtic have there, with possession zones at 64% and 61%, while the other lot get 69% and 71%. They do get the ball more in control in this area overall.
These overall numbers puts the blame pretty much solely on Connor Goldson, suggesting he struggles to dominate his side of the box, and doesn’t take the command he’s supposed to as vice-captain.
These further stats also confirm opposition get too much joy in Goldson’s box and the area right in front of him, and also shows the midfield on his side suffer from that.
We don’t want to make a witch hunt article about Goldson, but we’ve demonstrated many times before with various stats just how weak a link he actually is, and these new Opta numbers only confirm that.
The simple data reveals Rangers’ most vulnerable area is the right of the box and the right of defensive midfield, and this is due to Goldson, whose individual stats are the weakest of all Rangers’ defenders.
He is, simply, of all Rangers’ regulars, by far the weakest link, but we can’t see Philippe Clement saying ‘goodbye’ any time soon to him.
Despite these numbers, it’s clear Goldson remains untouchable and more pertinently Rangers are winning, but we can’t help feeling one day his flaws are going to cost us, maybe, a European final?
We’ve seen it before with the ex-Brighton defender and the latest data shows it’s still happening.
But we also concede as long as we just keep winning, we can’t really have any complaints.