Falkirk have to wait until Sunday for Premiership action as the Bairns travel to Rangers after their midweek Europa League clash with Braga.
Remarkably, the Bairns can leapfrog their hosts with a win as they sit in 6th place on 19 points, two points and one spot behind the Gers.Rangers Form Guide
Using the Falkirk vs Rangers Match Stats on Andy’s Bet Club, we can see that Rangers have had a recent uptick in form, with four wins in seven games. The run coincides with the arrival of Danny Rohl as the Glasgow side’s manager.
1-1 Draw vs Braga (H) – Europa League
2-1 Win vs Livingston (H) – Premiership
3-0 Win vs Dundee (A) – Premiership
2-0 Loss vs Roma (H) – Europa League
3-1 (aet) Loss vs Celtic (N) – League Cup
Rangers’ Recent League Matches:
Rangers v Livingston
While Rangers got the win against Livingston, it continued a trend of the Gers getting a positive result from an unconvincing display. Indeed, with 1.16 xG, they were actually worse off in that statistic than their visitors, who generated 1.48. This suggests that Livingston were actually the better team at creating chances.
The Gers did outshoot the West Lothian side 10-8, but with just three shots on target, the Ibrox side would have expected more. Indeed, they fell short of their season average of 13.17 shots against the league’s bottom club.
Dominance of the ball was not an issue; showing creativity was. The Ibrox side bossed 72.4% of possession, which was their 3rd-highest tally of the season and well above their norm of 63.2%. They were poor at transforming positional attacks into shooting chances, with just five shots coming from 41 attacks. This conversation rate of 12.2% is their 2nd-poorest of the season, lagging behind only their clash with Celtic back in August.
One aspect of Rangers’ play that will worry Rohl is the fact that Livingston’s average shot distance was just 16.06m, explaining why the xG of the visitors was comparatively high from just eight shots.
Dundee v Rangers
Rangers went to Dens Park and picked up a 3-0 win for their biggest success to date in the Premiership, but while they deserved the victory, their success in the City of Discovery was flattering. Rohl’s side were pretty average when it came to chance creation, scoring three goals from 1.2 xG, with Nicolas Raskin, Mikey Moore and Djeidi Gassama all on target.
The gamestate had an impact on Rangers’ low xG. Having scored a couple of goals in the opening 15 minutes of the match, there was no need for them to chase the game. Their attitude after a midweek European game was energy management, which was a fact underlined by the decision to make a triple change at the break.
The overall intensity of Rangers’ defensive approach also reflected the fact that they did not want to play with as much vigour as usual. Rangers’ passes allowed per defensive action (PPDA), a key measure of pressing, shows they sat at 8.36 for that game – less intense their season average of 7.61.
In this clash, the Glasgow side were almost happy for their opponents to have the ball. Dundee managed 3.81 passes per possession – the 3rd-highest an opponent has managed in the Premiership this season and above the 2.99 average. Despite this figure, the hosts lacked penetration, with 144 lateral passes in comparison to a norm of 95.7 for Rangers’ league opponents. In other words, they were kept at arm’s length.
Rangers’ One to Watch:
Nicolas Raskin: Belgium international Raskin has been Rangers’ most consistent player in the Premiership, even if he has struggled to hit the heights of last term. He is a player who does a bit of everything in the midfield, posting 1.7 key passes per match – Rangers’ 2nd-best tally – and 2.1 tackles per match, putting him 3rd in that particular category.
Final Thoughts
Rangers’ results might have improved under Danny Rohl, but this is still not a team playing well. They have won three of their last four in the league, but their opponents have had a superior xG in two of those fixtures, while Kilmarnock came within 0.26 xG of the Gers in their 3-1 Ibrox defeat.
In other words, Rangers are scoring considerably more goals than they would typically be expected to over the course of their last four games. They have netted nine times from just 3.78 xG – a run that is unlikely to be sustained over a prolonged period.
One thing that has changed since Falkirk drew with the Gers in Russell Martin’s final game in charge is their system, and that will pose a new challenge to John McGlynn. The 4-3-3 that the previous boss used has been cast aside, with Rohl typically preferring a 4-2-3-1. While he has also used a system with three centre-backs, injuries to Derek Cornelius and John Souttar make this an unlikely option here.
Defensively, the statistics show they have improved – at least in terms of the volume of shots they are conceding. Indeed, in each of Rohl’s five Premiership games, the Gers have allowed under their season average of 10.17 shots per game.
A point of concern is not the number of shots goalkeeper Jack Butland is facing, but the quality of those shooting opportunities. In these fixtures, the average shot distance of their opponents has been under 18m. Indeed, the Gers have actually conceded 5.42 xG across these fixtures and created only 5.40 xG of their own. It’s not the sign of a team in good form and suggests that, despite the managerial change, they are still vulnerable.
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