If you want to put the calamitous exit from the Scottish Cup behind you then this probably isn’t the article for you.
Social media has been awash with targets for blame and being honest, everyone has been right – to a certain extent. Kemar Roofe could have attempted to play in Scott Wright or Ryan Kent but chose to slow the game down and go to the corner before passing to Kent, who promptly lost possession.
When Roofe got a second chance he took the ball on himself before being fouled, but the free-kick wasn’t given and this is when everything started to go downhill. Some fans are saying Michael O’Halloran should have been stopped earlier, well, Joe Aribo did try to foul him but didn’t make enough contact. Borna Barisic actually does well to block the cross in the end, more of him later though.
Ultimately though, how Rangers defended the corner in the 121st minute was what led to our demise and when you watch the highlights again, it doesn’t get any easier to accept.
Bizarrely we are actually set up ok when the ball first comes in, we are set up with a mix of man marking and zonal marking players, no different to what we would normally do. St Johnstone, whether it was planned or not remains to be seen, but they drag our two centre-halves apart to the front and back post leaving the space in the middle to be attacked.
Kemar Roofe is in the front post zone normally occupied by Alfredo Morelos but he really should have been made to take a step back and mark Zander Clarke, as Alan Hansen used to say “I’ve never seen a space score a goal”.
More worrying though is Allan McGregor’s positioning, answers on a post card if you can work out what he is doing here:
If he takes a step forward rather than wrestling with Chris Kane at the back post he has an unobstructed path to the six-yard line to either catch or punch the ball and we are into the semi-finals. It’s not going to be a pleasant analysis session this one. Barisic was at least tight to Kane but after the initial header was won he was on the wrong side, if he is goal side, we keep the ball out – fine margins and all that.
Vital Rangers Young Player of the Year
Ianis Hagi
Nathan Patterson
James Maxwell
Stephen Kelly
Rangers did the right thing by setting up how they normally would to defend a corner but Roofe or Kamara should have been pulled in to deal with Clark so he at least doesn’t get a free header, again, if McGregor is paying attention this would have been sorted.
As with Steven Gerrard delivering the league title, it is possible to praise someone for one thing whilst criticising them for another, and in this case, McGregor made a couple of stunning saves to keep us in the game, however, he will know more than anyone else that he should have done better here, not that it will change anything though.