Ibrox View: Stats suggest Bassey could challenge for Rangers starting role in near future
Rangers look like they’ve landed a great coup with the signing of Calvin Bassey.
The youngster might not have featured at senior level for former club Leicester City, but Steven Gerrard already seems to be very excited by him and his first-team potential.
Bassey himself is making the right kind of noise too.
Despite his young age, it is clear that he believes in himself, and is eager to make an impact as quickly as possible.
Speaking to Rangers TV, he said: “I back myself but at the same time Borna Barisic is a great professional and a great player with great experience.
“So I’m just looking forward to having that sort of friendly rivalry but at the same time, adding some bits to my game from his game.”
To come in and set your sights on one of the most established players in the first team takes some confidence, but you’ve got admire Bassey for doing so.
Does he actually have it in his locker to displace Barisic though?
The stats would initially suggest that he has some way to go.
Over the course of his fledgling career, compared to Barisic’s last campaign, Bassey has averaged a lower total acton success rate, a lower cross accuracy rate, a lower pass completion rate, and a lower percentage of duels won, according to Wyscout.
But it’s not all doom and gloom for the youngster.
Bassey has averaged more interceptions and a higher dribble completion rate than the Croatia international.
And they could be the foundations on which he builds his Rangers career.
Take this map of his interceptions against Rochdale in 2018 as an example.
In that match Bassey made 18 interventions – a huge total – and considerably higher than anything we have seen from Barisic this season, as pictured below.
That tally illustrates a player who can read and quell danger well, and who has the intelligence and physicality to dominate a flank.
As for his dribbling ability, that is equally exciting.
Against Bayern Munich U23s last year, for instance, Bassey completed nine out of his 12 attempted dribbles.
While that is impressive enough in itself, it’s really the positioning of those runs that catches the eye.
This is a player who is constantly looking to get forward, and who almost acts like a second winger.
As we can see from the graph above, Barisic hasn’t reached nine dribbles once this season.
Even on a good day, when he completed four out of four against Hamilton in February, we can see that they tend to be in less advanced positions.
In short, Bassey still has a lot to learn, but there are some clear and obvious areas in which he already outperforms Barisic.
If he can get his head down and keep on adding to his game, there’s no reason to believe that he can’t be challenging for starting role in the relatively near future.
In other Rangers news, Ibrox Exclusive: Alex Bruce claims Ryan Kent can be ‘big asset’ for Gers in ‘huge’ 20/21.