Rangers player ratings v St Mirren
Rangers came from behind to return to the top of the Premiership table with a 2-1 win away at St Mirren on Sunday.
Connor Ronan’s spectacular early goal put the Buddies ahead before Kemar Roofe’s powerful penalty and Alfredo Morelos’ 100th Rangers goal put Steven Gerrard’s men into the lead before half-time.
The Gers were comfortable for large parts of the second half as they saw out their win and here, Ibrox News rates the players out of 10 for their performances:
Jon McLaughlin – 5
McLaughlin simply doesn’t fill us with as much confidence as Allan McGregor does. Although Ronan’s goal was very good, we feel as though McGregor would have at least got a hand to it and even saved it. McLaughlin didn’t have much else to do really.
James Tavernier – 8
Tavernier lost the ball before Ronan’s goal but he more than made up for it. Tav’s crossing was on point on Sunday and eventually set up the winner for Morelos to tap the ball in. It’s been a while since we’ve seen Tavernier’s crosses be so effective.
Connor Goldson – 8
An excellent performance from Goldson ensured St Mirren didn’t really show much in the way of being able to get back into the game. His defensive partnership with Balogun in Paisley was arguably one of the biggest positives of the game.
Leon Balogun – 8 (Man of the match)
When Filip Helander is back from injury, how does he get into the team? Balogun’s had his moments with the Gers but he was very good against St Mirren this weekend. More from that and Gerrard will have a big headache once Helander is back.
Borna Barisic – 4
Sorry, Borna, but that was a ridiculously bad performance from you. Barisic’s form this season has been awful and it’s about time Calvin Bassey starts playing more regularly. Barisic isn’t offering enough going forward and he isn’t solid enough defensively to make up for it. Really disappointing.
John Lundstram – 5
Lundstram has been in good form lately but was nowhere near good enough at St Mirren. The former Sheffield United midfielder was largely at fault for St Mirren’s opener. He should have done a lot better to stop Ronan from getting the better of him.
Steven Davis – 5
Not the best of showings by David in Paisley. The Northern Irish midfielder could really do with a rest because we’re not seeing him play anywhere near as good as he did last season.
Joe Aribo – 5
Went from having one of his best performances for the Gers on Thursday night to a fairly poor display at St Mirren. Aribo stuttered in possession and didn’t have the impact we would have hoped.
Ianis Hagi – 6
We know what Hagi is capable of but it just didn’t happen for him as regularly against St Mirren as it does against other teams. He won the penalty though, which set the Gers on their way to penalty.
Kemar Roofe – 7
Roofe is in great goalscoring form. His penalty was an absolute screamer, leaving Jak Alwnick with no chance of saving it. Roofe now has eight goals in 14 appearances across all competitions this season. If he stays fit, he’ll be massive in helping us secure title number 56.
Alfredo Morelos – 7
Welcome to the 100 club, Alfie. Morelos frustrated for large parts of the game but he found himself in the right place at the right time to secure not only his 100th Rangers goal but also a vital winner.
Substitutes:
Fashion Sakala (on for Morelos 69′) – 5
Scott Arfield (on for Hagi 78′) – N/A
Nathan Patterson (on for Roofe 86′) – N/A
In other Rangers news, Simon Jordan has reacted to the “noise” linking this man with an Ibrox exit.