Jason Jones

Fri 25 September 2020 9:30, UK

Rangers captain James Tavernier reached a major milestone on Thursday night when he hit his 50th goal for the Gers. 

The right-back opened the scoring from the penalty spot in a 4-0 win over Willem II that helped his side book their place in the final qualification round for this season’s Europa League.

A clash against Galatasaray awaits next week, but it’s worth taking a moment to recognise Tavernier’s wonderful achievement.

For any player to score a half century of goals for a club is a superb achievement, but for a full-back to reach that total is something else.

Tavernier sometimes divides opinion in Glasgow, and there will be plenty of people who point to the amount of penalties he has scored in that time.

But in truth, Tavernier has barely relied on spot-kicks to supplement his goalscoring in recent months.

As per Transfermarkt, Tavernier scored just two penalties last season, with a conversion rate of just 40%.

Compare that to the season before, when he hit 14 goals from the spot, and you can see that increasingly, penalties are not the sole source of his goal threat.

Even this season, he has scored three of his four goals from open play.

Regardless, however Tavernier has found the back of the net, the fact that he has done so around once every five games from right-back is almost ludicrous.

It’s difficult to think of another defender who poses such a goalscoring threat.

As a point of comparison, Borna Barisic – who is equally willing to get forward as his teammate – has scored three times in 71 outings for the Gers, or roughly once every 24 games.

Tavernier is a special, special talent, and it’s worth remembering just how fortunate we are to have him.

Here’s to the next 50.

Here are some of the best tweets from delighted Gers:

https://twitter.com/MisterEStrange/status/1309240879232811009?s=20

In other Rangers news, the Gers have hit an impasse in talks to sign this £4million-rated ace.