Ibrox View: Rangers skipper James Tavernier is rekindling best form in 20/21
Rangers captain James Tavernier has come in for his fair share of criticism in recent times.
Last season in particular felt as if he was struggling to recapture the kind of form that made him such a hit during his early career at Ibrox, and his notable lack of output – recording three goals and 15 assists compared to the 17 goals and 20 assists he managed in 2018/19 – was a cause for some concern.
Thankfully, however, the skipper has started this campaign in vastly improved form.
Tavernier already has three assists in five Scottish Premiership matches, and his stats across the board have skyrocketed.
As per Wyscout, his pass completion rate is up 5.9%, his crossing accuracy is up by 8.2%, and shot accuracy is up 18.2%.
Factor in a total action success rate increase of 7.9%, and he’s really flying.
Crucially, he starting to impact matches positively in advanced areas of the pitch too.
Against St. Mirren, for instance, he registered three successful crosses, giving him an accuracy of 50% – 27.4% higher than his average last season.
In the example above, Tavernier is pictured at the bottom of the shot.
The ball over the top is from Connor Goldson, and as soon as the centre-back takes hold of possession, you can already see Tavernier striding forward down the right flank.
That stretches the defence and essentially gives his teammate a second winger to hit with his diagonal.
Tavernier’s touch is ideal too, bring the ball under his spell while also getting it far enough out of his feet to set himself up for the cross.
He gets his head up, assesses the situation on the middle, and is able to whip in a delightful ball to a teammate.
The key to all of this is that it happens in a split second.
It’s almost like muscle memory for the captain, and it’s great to see him back in this kind of form, rediscovering his natural rhythm.
The delivery is inch perfect, and were it not for a skewed header, it could have been a perfect assist.
Nonetheless, there are plenty of promising signs from Tavernier right now, and we just have to hope that he can maintain this impressive form all season.
In other Rangers news, Bruce claims Rangers will want to ‘build team around’ this player.