Clement must drop Rangers flop who lost 100% duels
Glasgow Rangers dropped further behind their rivals at the top of the Scottish Premiership table after they were beaten 2-1 by St Mirren on Boxing Day.
The Light Blues found themselves 1-0 down at the break, thanks to a penalty given away by Jack Butland, before Danilo and Nicolas Raskin were introduced at the break.
Philippe Clement‘s Brazilian forward fired in the equaliser to tee up what could have been an exciting end to the game from a Rangers perspective, only for St Mirren to counter in stoppage time to score a dramatic winner.
Dujon Sterling’s error may take the headline as the reason why the Light Blues lost the match, as it was his slip up that created the winner for the hosts.
Dujon Sterling’s performance in numbers
After helping the team to keep a clean sheet against Dundee in the previous game, the former Chelsea man was selected at the heart of the defence once again.
There was plenty to like about his performance, again, as the defender won four of his six duels, including both of his aerial battles, and made eight clearances, two interceptions, two tackles, and a block.
Unfortunately, however, as you can see in the clip above, he tried to dribble the ball out from the back in stoppage time and was dispossessed, which led to the winning goal.
It was an error in judgement from Sterling, who should have released the ball to find a teammate instead of taking that risk, but his all-round performance up until that point had been sublime.
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Despite making the mistake that, ultimately, cost Rangers, Sterling was not the worst performer on the pitch. Nedim Bajrami, who started as part of the attacking midfield set up.
Why Nedim Bajrami should be dropped
The Albania international got the nod over Danilo, who dropped out of the XI to accommodate Hamza Igamane moving into a centre-forward role, and failed to justify his inclusion in the starting line-up.
It was a big opportunity for him to come in and show that he deserves more minutes in the side, with the likes of Ianis Hagi and Vaclav Cerny starting ahead of him in the attacking midfield positions of late, but he failed to take his chance.
Bajrami was withdrawn from the action at half-time by Clement, with his replacement – Danilo – going on to score, after a dismal first-half performance from the former Sassuolo star.
Nedim Bajrami |
Vs St Mirren |
---|---|
Minutes |
45 |
Shots |
0 |
Big chances created |
0 |
Key passes |
0 |
Duels won |
0/4 |
As you can see in the table above, the Albanian flop did very little to help the team on the pitch, as he lost all four of his duels – showing that the opposition found it far too easy to get the better of him.
His lack of chances created and shots also shows that the attacking midfielder did not do anything to contribute at the top end of the pitch, which meant that he was a liability in and out of possession for the Scottish giants.
Sterling, at least, provided plenty of big moments defensively to bail the team out before his costly error, whereas, Bajrami consistently let the team down with a lack of quality at both ends.
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Therefore, Clement should instantly drop the right-footed dud, who lost the ball ten times from 21 touches, and bring Danilo back in from the start on Sunday.
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2024-12-27 08:15:15