The boos that rang out as the full-time whistle sounded at Ibrox told of yet another lacklustre Rangers display that did little to persuade supporters that Michael Beale can lead the club forward.
Despite recording a third win and clean sheet on the bounce, the performance was abject with Motherwell rightly aggrieved not to take anything more from the game.
Speaking afterwards, the Rangers boss didn’t pull any punches. “From the first minute onwards I was unhappy with the team today,” he admitted.
“The unforced errors with the ball were unacceptable for players playing here. That performance today was a really poor one.”
The stats can sometimes paint a different picture to the one viewed with the naked eye but not on this occasion.
The Rangers Review has analysed the data, trends and graphs provided by our partners at StatsBomb in order to bring you a unique look back on yesterday’s fixture.
As expected, Rangers dominated possession but alarmingly recorded a Cumulative xG of just 0.93 compared to Motherwell’s 0.64.
The Race Chart illustrates that this was a game Rangers were fortunate to win. If the match was to be played 100 times, it would’ve ended all square on 35 occasions while Beale's side would've emerged victorious less than half the time.
In Layman’s terms, it was far from convincing and highlights a distinct lack of threat in the final third.
If we take a look at the Shot Map, it shows a real lack of penetration and cutting edge in front of goal. The Expected Goal per Shot in open play stat is damning. Just 0.064 at Ibrox against anyone really is far from good enough.
Cyriel Dessers replaced Kemar Roofe in the starting line-up but despite netting what would turn out to be the winning goal, rather fortuitously it has to be said, the Nigerian international put in another laboured performance.
On the goal, Beale said: “The goal was really good play.
“If you watch the goal back it was combination play, so in that moment they showed they are more than capable.
“We are getting in the right areas and the quality just hasn’t been good enough.”
🎯 @CyrielDessers pic.twitter.com/q9FB4mTedy
— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) September 24, 2023
The goal was the only real moment in the game that Sam Lammers, Scott Wright, Rabbi Matondo and Dessers combined well with the Welshman’s strike taking a fortunate deflection off Dessers that had the beating of Liam Kelly in the Motherwell goal.
Prior to Dessers’ interjection, Matondo’s strike posted an xG of just 0.28 which means it would’ve been unlikely to have beaten Kelly. Once the ball left Dessers’ boot it jumped up to 0.74PSxG which demonstrates that the effort would find the net 74 percent of the time.
His goal aside, if we look at the former Cremonese man’s involvement in closer detail, we can see just how uninvolved he was. He made just 14 passes during the course of the game with just a 71.4 percent success rate, the lowest of all the players on the pitch aside from second-half substitutes Abdallah Sima and Bailey Rice.
Dessers had two other attempts on goal, one effort saved by Liam Kelly and another he pulled wide of the goal. For large parts, the 28-year-old was isolated and struggled to get involved.
A look at the Passing Network backs this up. Dessers received just 35 passes which was the lowest of the starting outfield players.
Whether it’s the system that doesn’t suit his style of play or a lack of ability, Rangers are simply not getting value for money.
READ MORE: Why were Rangers so laboured in win against Motherwell?
At the other end of the pitch, the third successive clean sheet is a positive although Stuart Kettlewell will feel unfortunate his side couldn’t breach the Ibrox club’s backline. The fact the visitors posted a higher ExpG/shot in open play than Rangers tells you he has every right to feel hard done by.
With David Martindale’s Livingston next up on Wednesday night, Rangers can ill afford another below-par performance. The fanbase are rightly unhappy with the standard of football being served up and the stats add weight to their frustrations.
Whether Michael Beale can turn the team’s fortunes around remains to be seen.
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