Highlighting James Tavernier’s importance to Rangers isn’t that difficult to do, but domestically-speaking while the captain’s performance has tailed off a bit in 2024 compared with his peerless August-December period, it’s still extremely solid and among the very best in the league, never mind at the club.

New stats released today confirm Tavernier has made more key passes in the league than any other player in the SPL, with a stunning 93, but it is also worth noting that on the other side, he has also made the highest number of misplaced passes at Rangers, and is 7th in the league for that one, at 424.

In short, when Tavernier makes a pass, it either more often than not gifts the ball to the opposition OR makes a dangerous key movement to hurt the opponent.

There’s not a lot of middle ground with the right back, it’s either great or maybe not quite so great!

Big chances created? 16, second in the SPL. Behind Killie’s Danny Armstrong.

And the Killie winger does show up at the top end of a lot of these tables… he’s one Philippe Clement might want a look at.

But we digress, Tavernier’s stats remain very, very interesting – that few misplace passes as badly as he does, but also no one is better for nailing it either with the key passes.

Defensively? For tackles and interceptions Tav is in the top 10 consistently – he lost a little momentum but he’s still among the top performers.

And he is clearly in line for Player of the Season along with Lundstram and Butland.

Tav is someone who divides fans – we do think his level has actually dipped overall this season, he’s not as quick as he was, and his passing is a bit errant at times, but no one has more influence on their team in terms of football contribution than Tav does and we do wonder how much longer we’ll get out of him.

He also did struggle in Europe this season – no assists, no goals in the UEL, and quite a few shabby displays. His level used to shine in the Europa League, but this season he was below par unfortunately.

He did, paradoxically, assist and score in the arguably higher-level Champions League qualifiers so make of that what you will.

Either way, he’s 32 now and all players have a shelf life. But we doubt Philippe Clement has any plans to replace the captain any time soon.