Rangers 1-2 Malmo: Tactical and data-driven match report

1-0 up and being roared on by a capacity crowd - when Malmo went down to 10 men before half-time it seemed improbable the home side wouldn’t go onto capitalise on their extra man advantage.

But two goals from Antonio Colak in four minutes gave the visitors a 4-2 aggregate lead on the night and Steven Gerrard’s side was unable to find an avenue back into the match.

Using Wyscout data, The Rangers Review looks back at how the game played out.

Average positions 

The first thing that stands out is how congested the middle of the park was for Rangers. Fashion Sakala and Ianis Hagi did manage to get closer to Alfredo Morelos as the second half wore on, but there were periods in the game where he grew a little isolated.

There were a couple of moments in particular where the hosts were too deep and played in areas Malmo were comfortable in. In front of their deep defence and not upsetting the backline enough.

It's worth pointing out the position of Kent in comparison to Malmo's No.15 Anel Ahmedhodžić. Particularly in the first half, it would have been positive to have seen Kent try to isolate himself more against the centre-back. 

With Borna Barisic occupying Berget and Joe Aribo supporting build-up as well as making runs in behind, Kent too often came short as opposed to maintaining width and running at Ahmedhodžić.

This is perhaps more of a complaint with the system than the personnel - as one of the 'two 10s' Kent is supposed to play in the half space.

But as the game wore on, he dropped deeper into areas where he couldn't hurt the opposition.

As was the case last week, Malmo were focused on making inroads down the right, with Anders Christianson drifting to that side from the left.

Pass map

What stands out right away on review of the passing networks is the lack of link-up down the right flank. Comparatively, Barisic and Kent were able to combine more regularly as shown by the thicker black line.

Rangers had 31 minutes of pure possession time in the game. As Gerrard told Premier Sports after the game: "Even when we had them where we wanted them, we were going round and round rather than trying to pin back their defenders and try and play into our front men more."

READ MORE: The Malmo throw-in echo that bamboozled Rangers analysed - Joshua Barrie

The strong black lines between the midfield and defence laterally signify how little Rangers played through Malmo.

The visitor's pass map indicates again their intention to overload and create down their right side.

Shot maps 

The xG value of Colak's goals demonstrates how well he took both. The first chance was valued at 0.03, given the only place he could feasibly score was right across Allan McGregor.

His second goal came on the half-turn going back across goal and was valued at 0.07 before being struck into the net.

Rangers had a number of chances throughout the game, but their xG total of 2.15 was accumulated through quantity and not necessarily quality. 

What is also noticeable is the lack of opportunities after half-time. In the 15-minute period that Rangers should have been trying to put the game beyond Malmo, the visitors managed to build pressure themselves and created two goals from throw-ins.

Attacks by flanks

Malmo, as mentioned, directed much of their attacking efforts down their right side, with Soren Rieks retaining width on the left.

For the number of times Rangers picked up the ball on their right side in the second half, they struggled to fashion high-value chances. The above pass map shows that Tavernier played balls infield more regularly.

PPDA

Malmo were starting to grow into the game before they went down to 10 men. It looked to be their game plan to brace an inevitable early storm and slow down proceedings where possible. 

Rangers displayed a good intensity throughout, and the drop in their PPDA is likely due to Malmo's lack of possession as the game reached its end.