Steven Gerrard’s Rangers side have had a great start to their title defence in the 2021/22 Scottish Premiership season. They are currently sat at the top of the Premiership standings with 19 points from their first eight games, winning six and losing just one game so far this season.
Their only loss came early in the season, away at Dundee United. They have been formidable going forward and resolute in defence, scoring 14 goals and conceding just six. Their form has not been so good in Europe as they first lost their Champions League qualifier, and have also lost their first two Europa League group games.
In this post, we will take a look at the attacking prowess and defensive resolute of Rangers through their stats.
Rangers have overachieved their total xG so far this season, as they have scored 14 goals, while their xG has been 13.20 which is only lower than Celtic(20.59). Celtic are the only team who have scored more goals than Gerrard’s men with 19 goals, while second-placed Hearts and third-placed Hibernian have scored 14 goals each as well. Their biggest rivals Celtic have been a force in terms of performance, but results have not gone their way as they have lost three of their eight games are currently on sixth in the standings.
Rangers have had a total of 133 shots in their opening eight games, out of which 43 have been on target. they have scored 14 goals, and have dominated almost all their games. They have not had a single prolific goal scorer, but any of their players have chipped in with goals to help the team to victories. Kemar Roofe has scored three goals for them, while Alfredo Morelos has scored two goals and provided two assists. James Tavernier has been another standout player and has scored one goal and provided three assists for his team.
Kemar Roofe has been the main man up front in Steven Gerrard’s team and has been reliable with his goals and assists since last season. he scored 10 goals in 19 games in the league stages of 20/21, followed by four goals in five games in the Championship group. he has started the season with three goals in his first seven appearances. The Rangers side will rely a lot on their striker this season for goals, and also hope for him to find his scoring boots in Europe and rescue them from their Europa League group.
Steven Gerrard has also made sure that his team are a big threat from set-pieces like he used to be in his playing days. His team have converted the most shots from corners with 25, and have also scored multiple goals from set-pieces. They have also been effective at defending set pieces, and have not conceded goals from any corners so far this season.
The above viz shows the PPDA values of all the teams in the Scottish Premiership. PPDA value is the passes per defensive action value, which gives a measure of how effective a defensive unit has been. the lesser value of PPDA shows that the team has been more active defensively, and has not allowed oppositions to accumulate a lot of passes. Rangers PPDA value has only been second to Celtic, but The Light blues have been able to convert results into their favour and are six points ahead of their arch-rivals Celtic who are in sixth have just 13 points.
Gerrard has had a huge impact on the Rangers side, as he won them their first league title in years in his first season in charge in 20-21. He has kept up the good run of form from last season and carried in forward this season, starting with winning six out of the first eight games. The underlying stats suggest it could be another good year for Rangers.
