Rangers statistic lays bare area Michael Beale needs to act on as a priority

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Published on:

10 Sep 2023, 11:40 am

Rangers are already playing catch-up in the Scottish Premiership after tasting defeat in half of their opening four matches.

The Gers failed to score in those two defeats, coming at the hands of Kilmarnock and Celtic.

Fourteen goals from eight matches this season overall - 1.75 per game on average - is not the most alarming of returns.

But the Gers looked bereft of ideas against Celtic in the final third - their disallowed goals aside - and also failed to find a way past Kilmarnock.

Something is clearly wrong, then, and that is laid bare when taking a closer look at the underlying statistics via FBref.

Rangers have had 80 shots in the Scottish Premiership so far this season, which is a whopping 20 more than next-highest Celtic.

However, they have scored only six times from those 80 shots - Celtic have eight from their 60 - so they clearly need to work on their shooting during the two-week break.

Indeed, only 31.3% of their shots so far have found the target. To put that in some context, only five teams have a worse record than that.

Even more damning than that, with 0.08 goals per shot, only St Johnstone, Aberdeen (0.06), Hearts and Kilmarnock (0.04) have fared worse.

Rabbi Matondo has been the worst offender, finding the target only once this season to give him a 20% accuracy rate.

This is not to point the finger of blame at any one individual, but rather the team as a whole. Nobody has covered themselves in glory thus far.

Michael Beale will no doubt be aware of his side's profligacy, with quality over quantity the order of the day ahead of club action resuming.

In other Rangers news, a former Gers player was unhappy with an incident in a fiery Scottish Masters match.

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