Fewer touches than Butland: Starting Rangers flop should see Martin sacked
da betobet： Just when Rangers supporters thought this season couldn’t get any worse for the Ibrox outfit, well it can.
da marjack bet： On Thursday night, Russell Martin’s Gers were beaten 2-1 in a Europa League clash at Liebenauer Stadium.
Austrian champions Sturm Graz scored twice in the first half, both times thanks to some absolutely horrendous defending that left Ally McCoist on commentary speechless, while Djeidi Gassama did lash one home immediately after half time, but an equaliser was not forthcoming.
Having lost 1-0 at home to Genk last Thursday, the Light Blues have now started a UEFA Cup or Europa League group stage with back-to-back defeats for the very first time, while Martin’s team have in fact lost five successive European fixtures, conceding 14 goals and scoring only three.
Considering he has won only five matches in charge across all competitions, losing six, supporters wanted the manager gone weeks ago, but was starting Rangers’ summer flop a sackable offence in of itself?
Rangers' continued defensive issues
Credit where credit’s due, this fact comes from Rory Hamilton during his commentary on TNT Sports.
Rangers’ last clean sheet away from home came against Ross County in Dingwall on 8 December, 299 days ago and counting, a streak of 22 matches across all competitions, which equals a club record set in 1897 when Queen Victoria was still on the throne.
Failure to keep a shutout against Falkirk on Sunday would break that 128-year-old record.
Goalkeeper Jack Butland was unceremoniously dropped by interim manager Barry Ferguson last season, but has been Martin’s undisputed number one since his appointment, albeit the England international may feel he should have kept out Tomi Horvat’s opener, a shot that was pretty much straight at him, but squirmed under his body and in.
In fairness, he does have a completely chaotic defence in front of him, with deadline day signing Derek Cornelius wondering what he did to deserve landing on this sinking ship, while 19-year-old Jayden Meghoma, who was hooked at half time in Austria, is not enjoying his time in Glasgow so far much either.
With games against Brann, Roma, Braga, Ferencváros, Ludogorets Razgrad and Porto to come in this Europa League campaign, if Rangers continue to defend the way that they are, they will be crashing out in the league phase, having finished up in eighth place as recently as last season.
However, Martin has issues at the other end of the park too, making it bewildering as to why he chose the centre-forward he did.
Rangers striker yet to impress
When 49ers Enterprises completed their takeover of Rangers in the summer, they pledged to invest around £20m into the club, but how much of that has been wasted on Youssef Chermiti?
The Portuguese under-21 international joined the club from Everton on deadline day for a reported fee of £8m, potentially rising to £10m with add-ons.
The Gers’ previous transfer record in the post-liquidation era is the £7.5m paid to Liverpool to secure Ryan Kent’s signature, following an impressive loan spell, with Chermiti’s fee thereby second only to the £12m splurged on Tore André Flo in 2000.
The 21-year-old led the line in Graz, as he did for the visit of Genk a week earlier, but did not impress, as the table below documents.
Chermiti stats vs Sturm Graz
Statistics
Chermiti
Match rank
Shots on target
3
2nd
Hit woodwork
1
1st
xG
0.49
3rd
Duels contested
11
5th
Duels won
5
10th
Touches
24
22nd
Sofascore rating
6
32nd
Stats via Sofascore
As the table notes, despite attempting four shots, of which three were on target, Chermiti was not taking these from particularly good positions, hence why his expected goals figure was as low as 0.49, an average of only 0.12 per shot.
He also lost possession eight times, as well as winning less than 50% of his duels, registering a miserly 24 touches, which is fewer than goalkeeper Jack Butland (31), as well as six less than Oliver Antman, who was hooked at half-time.
During commentary for TNT Sport, McCoist outlined his reservations about the signing, saying that he hopes that Chermiti will score 200 or even 300 goals for Rangers, and he would probably have to if he’s to justify the sky-high price-tag.
Well, first and foremost, just one goal would be a start!
He did not score a single goal in two seasons at Everton, albeit he made just 24 appearances, totalling 295 for the Toffees, meaning his last senior goal came for Sporting against Paços de Ferreira on 7 May 2023.
That same day, Todd Cantwell scored the only goal as Michael Beale’s Rangers beat Barry Robson’s Aberdeen 1-0 at Ibrox, while Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic rubber-stamped the title at Tynecastle simultaneously; a lot has changed all round!
When you’ve got a proven reliable goalscorer sat on the bench in Bojan Miovski, who was introduced at half time when it was already too late, Martin’s decision to start Chermiti, when his job is on the line, is frankly baffling.