Groundhog Day.
A few weeks back I wrote that we needed to stop conceding the first goal before it cost us, against the likes of St Mirren and Ross County you can get away with it most weeks but against a team that has Kevin Nisbet and Martin Boyle up front, it’s suicide.
In our last five games we have conceded just 12 shots, in itself an admiral statistic, but not when you consider that we have lost nine goals in the same period.
Rangers have conceded twelve shots on target in their last five domestic games. Nine have resulted in goals.
— Craig Vickers (@craigvickers_) November 21, 2021
Collectively, we have to be defending to a reasonable standard to be restricting teams to less than three shots per game on average but it shows that there is a nervousness and uncertainty that is leading to hesitation and individual errors.
It’s easy to compare and contrast during the Hibs game.
Matt Macey – on more than one occasion – came out of his six yard box to claim crosses, corners and set pieces, whilst at the other end, Boyle had time to control the ball a yard away from the line before opening the scoring – a chance that came from both the first and second ball not being dealt with.
Allan McGregor is a club legend, there is no getting away from this, however, his form this season has been non existent, his save percentage is one of the lowest in the league and he has been responsible or could have done better at several goals this season – Hearts and Motherwell just two recent examples but there have been more, no clean sheets and 1.33 goals conceded per game, 0.5 more than Jon McLaughlin.
Hampden was a wake up call, 55 is gone and with it the form of some of our senior players, Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s first task is to rid us of the panic that has crept into our defence, the only way to do this is by making tough decisions, starting with the goalkeeper.