Is there something missing despite Rangers' impressive form?

Published6 hours ago

Rangers are unbeaten in their past 12 matches in all competitions, winning 10 of them, and moved to within a point of the Scottish Premiership summit after Saturday's 2-0 win away to St Mirren.

They thoroughly deserved their victory. They have the best defensive record in the top flight and the third best attacking record, but it feels as though they are not playing to their full potential.

In Paisley, Derek McInnes' side never quite put the game to bed despite a host of chances and St Mirren should really have pulled one back in the closing stages.

"There's still not that element of control," former Celtic striker Chris Sutton said on Sky Sports.

"That killer instinct is really important, but they don't control games the way they should. That will be the worry. Eventually that will bite Rangers in the backside."

Sutton's sparring partner on Sky - former Rangers and Scotland striker Kris Boyd - agreed.

"They are a good team, but with Rangers teams of the past, that would have been three or four," he said.

"There is something missing."

Rangers overcome St Mirren to move point behind Celtic

Rangers overcome St Mirren to move point behind Celtic

Ryan Naderi - who put Rangers in front from the penalty spot and has scored six in his past eight league matches - should have scored before he did.

Strike partner Kevin Kelsy missed a host of chances at the start of the second half before midfielder Dan Neil's deflected shot nestled in the bottom corner to make it 2-0.

Rangers' expected goals in their 12 league matches this season is 29.8. They have scored just 21.

Key striking duo Youssef Chermiti and Lawrence Shankland are both out injured and that goes some way to explaining their profligacy in front of goal, but it doesn't tell the full story.

Naderi and Kelsy have performed admirably this season - there have only been two matches since August in which neither man has scored.

It is the players behind them who have not fully stepped up to the plate.

South Korean winger Kim Min-su is yet to score or assist in Rangers colours since signing from Girona in the summer, although he created more chances than any other player on Saturday, while Badredine Bouanani has shown undoubted quality without regularly delivering end product.

Against St Mirren, there were plenty of promising attacking positions that did not result in a shot as players took the wrong option and allowed the home defence to recover.

As McInnes pointed out: "Loads of chances. It's quite ironic we scored from a penalty and a deflected shot, but some of our work was really clean up until the last part.

"What becomes a good chance could be a brilliant chance if we just take care with the weight of pass and make the right decision.

"There are umpteen examples in that game today and it's something we need to improve on. We've got to take ownership that we can do better in these moments.

"The top players make these decisions at breakneck speed and pick the right pass."

It is obviously something McInnes has impressed on his players and Neil referenced the need to be more ruthless.

"We speak all the time about being more clinical and there were a couple of chances we could have done better with," the former Sunderland midfielder said.

McInnes - who fell agonisingly short of winning the title with Heart of Midlothian last season - was open about how he wants and expects more from his players moving forwards, despite their impressive form.

"It's not been perfect," he said of the past two and a half months. "We've had the draw with Hearts and the draw at Dundee.

"Our fight is with ourselves to keep improving. If we can keep winning and getting those improvements as we go along, there's hopefully more to come from us."

If those improvements do come, Sutton believes Rangers could be hard to stop.

"They seem like a team that have another gear or two and that will be a worry for the other teams in the league," he added.

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• Published18 June 2023

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Published18 June 2023