If there is one player that almost perfectly sums up how the Rangers team is currently playing it’s skipper James Tavrnier.
He was never going to be able to replicate the numbers of last year, and yet he still has two goals and five assists in his nine Premiership games this season – again, not bad for a right-back.
It’s just not this simple though and his performance against Aberdeen perfectly reflected what has been going on.
A goal, an assist and he played the key pass that led to Fashion Sakala being brought down for our 80th minute penalty which earned him a SofaScore rating of 9.8 out of 10 and man of the match, that he won 10 out of 12 ground duels and played a further five key passes shows his influence on the game – but, he still came in for criticism from some Rangers fans.
It’s weird that a player who is so obviously important to how we play can be producing excellent numbers but still not look like they are anywhere near the standard they should be – that he gave away possession nearly a quarter of the time that he had the ball, 27 times in total, gives another indicator and more rounded picture of how he played.
The team isn’t firing but is top of the table, silly mistakes costing us dearly, Tavernier is no different. He is producing where it matters but needs to cut out the errors and slackness in his game if he is to lift the Scottish Premiership trophy once again.