Gio van Bronckhorst watched his team’s title hopes all but fade away as Rangers lost 2-1 in the Premiership against their rivals at Ibrox on Sunday.
It was a dream start for the Gers as Aaron Ramsey opened the scoring early on. Calvin Bassey set Ryan Kent away down the left and the winger’s low cross allowed the Welshman to convert from close range.
However, the Hoops quickly equalised as Allan McGregor’s weak parry in the six-yard box allowed Tom Rogic to tap the ball into a virtually empty net.
The away side then turned it around just before half-time as Cameron Carters-Vicker swept home in the box after McGregor decided not to come for the ball from the cross. It came after a contentious foul was given to Celtic for a John Lundstram challenge, with the midfielder winning the ball but taking Giakoumakis with him.
Forget McGregor
Whilst McGregor can be criticised for his role in the goals Rangers conceded, he was not the only player who let van Bronckhorst down and another one of them was Gers captain James Tavernier as he had an Old Firm howler at Ibrox.
The right-back put in a dreadful showing on and off the ball as he struggled to show off the quality the fans know he is capable of providing. He has six goals and 11 assists from full-back in the Premiership this season, but you would not have guessed it based on his showing against the Hoops.
In possession, he was wasteful. Sky Sports commentator Ian Crocker described his play as “sloppy” and the statistics back that up. As per SofaScore, he lost the ball a whopping 40 times as he consistently gifted it back to Celtic with his poor end product.
He failed with 16 of his 17 attempted crosses and only created two chances despite having 106 touches throughout the match. This shows that he was wasteful on the ball and did not offer enough quality in his delivery to give the attackers something to get on the end of.
Defensively, it was a mixed bag from the ex-Newcastle man. As per SofaScore, he won four tackles but was also dribbled past three times, which suggests that his tackling was inconsistent as he allowed himself to be beaten too often.
Daizen Maeda beat him with the ball in the first half and it took the collective efforts of McGregor, Connor Goldson and Calvin Bassey to prevent the forward from scoring on that occasion.
Overall, it was a disappointing showing from Tavernier at both ends of the pitch. He had a howler and will need to dust himself down to turn things around when Rangers face Braga in the Europa League on Thursday.
AND in other news, GvB can save Rangers millions with “brave” 48-goal teen who’s “clinical and calm”…