Ibrox View: Defoe and Tavernier should take penalties for Rangers next season
Rangers have struggled to find a consistent penalty taker this season.
James Tavernier was Steven Gerrard’s go-to man during his first term at Ibrox, but a poor run of just two conversions from five led to a period of chopping and changing from the boss this time around.
In truth, we never really got any further towards finding a reliable, spot kick taker by the time the season was curtailed, and the stats from 2019/20 make for grim reading.
The next most used penalty taker after Tavernier this season was Alfredo Morelos, but even he squandered one of the two chances he was presented with, giving him a conversion rate of just 50%, as per Transfermarkt.
Ianis Hagi and Scott Arfield both failed to hit the back of the net with their solitary attempts either.
Overall, the Gers scored just 40% of their penalties in 2019/20 – a truly shocking return.
In fact, the only man who can hold his head up high in all of this is Jermain Defoe.
As you might expect from the hitman, he took one, scored one – leaving him with a conversion rate of 100%.
We see a similar thing if we look at last season’s stats too.
Defoe scored his one and only penalty, and when you consider the fact that he has scored 21 out of his career spot kicks – a success rate of 70% – it looks as if he could be the man to make that role his own.
The obvious issue is, of course, that Defoe isn’t always on the pitch.
In that instance, Tavernier surely deserves a second chance.
His success rate of 87.5% last season was exemplary, and his career average of 76.9% is actually better than Defoe’s.
You can understand Gerrard feeling as if a change was needed – and in Defoe he has a very capable marksman who can step up to the plate – but in the event of the veteran striker not being available, Tavernier deserves another shot at proving himself.
In other Rangers news, Billy Dodds claims Lyndon Dykes would be ‘perfect buy’ for Gers this summer.