A familiar tale of Rangers domination offset by poor finishing and defensive errors

Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s men raced into a two-goal lead only for the Steelmen to claim a point with the Light Blues guilty of defensive errors as well as passing up several opportunities to put the game beyond doubt.

Using StatsBomb data, the Rangers Review brings you a unique look back at events at Ibrox.

Trendline

As we can see, this was a match Rangers should’ve won, their xG of 2.21 compared to Motherwell’s 1.23 tells an all too familiar story of missed chances and poor defending.

The hosts were in total control in the first half, Alfredo Morelos and Fashion Sakala netted but, in truth, they should’ve been out of sight given the chances created, Liam Kelly came to the Lanarkshire side’s aid also to deny James Tavernier and John Lundstram.

Motherwell’s first foray into the Rangers box resulted in a goal with Kaiyne Woolery showing Lundstram a clean pair of heels before squaring for Jordan Roberts to tap into an empty net.

When the Fir Park side notched their equaliser through Woolery, Rangers piled the pressure on but simply lacked the cutting edge to find a third goal.

Shot Maps

Similarly to the dropped points at Tannadice, Rangers peppered the opposition goal with 29 attempts yet netted just twice while Motherwell managed to score twice from a handful of attempts.

The opener was well-worked with Ryan Kent’s teasing cross met by Morelos although there is a strong shout it struck Motherwell defender Bevis Mugabi last. The xG of 0.04 indicates how difficult a chance it was, although the execution of the shot sees that jump to 0.27.

Goal number two from Fashion Sakala was also impressive, again it came from Kent causing havoc in the Motherwell penalty area before the ball is played out to the Zambian to rifle into the corner. The xG of 0.15 which jumps to 0.71 when Sakala strikes the ball points to an impressive piece of finishing.

Motherwell’s opener was a poor goal to lose as far as Rangers are concerned. John Lundstram’s ball to Calvin Bassey is dispossessed and results in Woolery racing to the byline before squaring to Roberts for the easiest of tap-ins with Connor Goldson and Allan McGregor failing to deal with the ball across goal.

The visitors’ second is even more galling and has led to the growing number of supporters calling for the removal of McGregor as No.1.

READ MORE: It's time to talk about Allan McGregor for the sake of Rangers' title hopes - Garry Carmody

Tavernier and Goldson fail to deal with a lofted ball which allows Woolery a chance to fire on goal. His strike has a low xG of 0.13 and even when he strikes the ball, it only jumps to 0.23 which suggests McGregor should’ve done better when he was beaten at his near post.

Pass Networks

The illustrations highlight Rangers’ dominance in the game, they enjoyed 77% possession with 615 completed passes compared to Motherwell’s 127.

Interestingly, if we look at the difference in Motherwell’s pass maps between the first and second halves, we see just how big an impact Roberts and Woolery had as the Steelmen chased the game and had a go at Rangers.

From a Rangers perspective, Joe Aribo was relatively quiet. There is a debate to be had whether the Nigerian is in need of a rest. He has played a great deal of football recently and hasn’t looked his best since arriving back from the AFCON.

Conclusion

This was a game, like numerous before this season, that Rangers should’ve won comfortably. The stats tells a story of overall domination yet a failure to take the array of opportunities created and individual defensive errors are proving costly.

With 10 games of the Premiership campaign remaining, it remains to be seen if the champions can rectify what has been a season-long problem thus far.