Glasgow Rangers kicked off their Scottish Premiership season with disappointment, as they were held to a 1-1 draw away from Ibrox against Motherwell.
The Light Blues had the lead at Fir Park for most of the evening, thanks to an opener from James Tavernier, but Emmanuel Longelo’s crisp strike just before the end of the 90 minutes secured a draw for the home side.
Russell Martin will surely be gutted that his team were unable to see it out to claim all three points on the opening day, and may not have been too pleased with some of the performances from his players on the pitch.
One player who still looks to be adjusting to the drastic change in the style of play under the new head coach is central defender John Souttar, who does not look at home in a risk-taking defence.
John Souttar’s performance against Motherwell
The rough and tumble Scottish brute is a physical defender who can dominate opposition attackers in one-on-one duels, and that was the case against Motherwell as he won two of his three ground duels and four of his five aerial contests.
However, Souttar is tasked with defending large spaces because of the positions that the full-backs take up and the risks that Rangers take, and he does not have the mobility to deal with those situations consistently.
The Scotland international did make seven clearances, including one vital one in the six-yard box after Jack Butland spilled the ball, but he also made an error that directly led to a shot and was outpaced down Motherwell’s right flank one too many times.
Souttar was far from the only less-than-impressive performer on the park for Rangers, though, as Martin must drop Danilo for Tuesday night’s Champions League clash with Viktoria Plzen.
Why Rangers must drop Danilo
The Brazilian forward, who was awarded a 5/10 player rating by GlasgowWorld, was selected to lead the line ahead of Cyriel Dessers, whilst Hamza Igamane was unavailable due to injury.
Unfortunately, the former Feyenoord marksman was even worse than Souttar and should be ruthlessly dropped by Martin for the game against Viktoria Plzen.
Whilst Souttar offered strength defensively and made seven clearances to help his side out, Danilo had very few redeeming factors in his performance, as he struggled on and off the ball.
The Brazilian lightweight played 63 minutes and only contested one duel with the opposition centre-backs, which shows that he did not anticipate the game well enough, or show enough desire, to get stuck in for his team.
|
Danilo |
Panathinaikos (H) |
Panathinaikos (A) |
Motherwell (A) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Minutes |
74 |
82 |
63 |
|
Shots on target |
0 |
1 |
0 |
|
Passes completed |
11 |
9 |
10 |
|
Key passes |
2 |
0 |
1 |
|
Big chances created |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Ground duels won |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
Aerial duels won |
0 |
1 |
0 |
As you can see in the table above, Danilo also failed to register a single shot on target and did not create any ‘big chances’ for his side in his 63 minutes on the field.
This means that the 26-year-old striker was a liability in and out of possession, as he offered very little at the top end of the pitch and very little physically when Rangers did not have the ball.
Therefore, Martin should ruthlessly ditch Danilo from the starting XI for the game on Tuesday night, as he has not done enough in the last three games, as a starter, to justify his continued inclusion.
Dessers, who won as many duels (one) in 28 minutes as Danilo won in 63 minutes, may get a chance to show what he can do in a Martin team from the start.
