Rangers will be travelling to Hibernian for Matchday 15 of the 2021-22 Scottish Premiership season. The defending champions and current leaders have recently seen their beloved manager Steven Gerrard leave the club to join Premier League club Aston Villa. Giovanni van Bronckhorst has taken over the managerial position at the Scottish club and will hope to take the club forward towards another ScpottishPremiership title. Rangers won their most recent league game 3-1 against Livingston to extend their lead at the top of the table to four points. They now have 33 points from 14 games having lost only one game in the league this season.
Hibernian have had a mixed start to their league campaign this season, as they currently sit at sixth with 18 points from their 13 games. They are just two points clear of St. Mirren and will hope to keep their top-six spot in the upcoming weeks. In this post, we will look at some of the stats of both Hibernian and rangers to track their progress in the Premiership.
The above viz shows the xG values created by various teams in the Scottish Premiership this season. Rangers have an xG of 26.73, which is only second to Celtic, while Hibernian have the sixth-highest xG creation of 17.70. Rangers have actually highly overachieved their xG by scoring a total of 32 goals in 14 games, while Hibernian have scored 17 goals in their 13 games.
The xGA or expected goals against stat refers to the expected number of goals an opposition has the opportunity to score. The lower value of xGA would indicate a better defense that concedes fewer goals. Rangers are the second-best in terms of xGA with just 8.35 but have conceded 14 goals, while with Celtic, they have an xG of just 7.54 and have conceded only 10 goals. The Rangers’ next opponent Hibernian have the next best xGA in the league with 10.35 despite conceding 17 goals.
The above viz shows the aerial duels contested by all the teams in the Scottish Premiership. Rangers have contested 607 aerial duels in their 14 games, which is the second-lowest in the league. Hibernian have the fourth-lowest aerial duels in the division with 656.
There is a 14-point gap between the two teams, and the Rangers are the team in better form. They will be the team to beat, and it will be a big task for Hibernian to come out with any kind of a positive result. We expect Rangers to register a comfortable 3-0 win.
Hibernian possible starting lineup:
Macey; McGinn, Porteous, Hanlon; Doig, Newell, Doyle-Hayes, Cadden, Campbell; Nisbet, Gullan
Rangers possible starting lineup:
McGregor; Tavernier, Goldson, Bassey, Barisic; Aribo, Kamara; Arfield, Kent, Hagi, Morelos
