Scottish media tears Sam Lammers to shreds after Rangers draw v Aris, ‘it’s painful watching him’
Thursday night’s Rangers performance against Aris Limassol in the Europea League was a tough watch as the Gers missed an opportunity to qualify for the knockout stages.
The Cyrpian champions opened the scoring through Shavy Babicka on 28 minutes, before Ross McCausland, who had replaced Todd Cantwell early in the first half, arrowed in the equaliser moments into the second half.
The Scottish media were extremely honest with their player ratings after the match, criticising one player in particular for his poor performance – Sam Lammers.
“It’s actually painful watching him,” the Scottish Daily Mail wrote on Friday (1 December, page 87). “Crowd cheered when he was subbed off in second half.”
The Scottish Sun only added to this on Thursday (30 November), commenting, “Fluffed a good early chance and his night didn’t get any better after that. Took pelters from some Gers fans and was subbed off to cheers. Booked.”
Both news outlets awarded the 26-year-old a 4/10 rating for his display, with Philippe Clement hooking him before the hour mark.
A poor team performance
It is tricky to pick on just one player for Thursday night’s shocking performance. It is even tougher to take when Real Betis’ slip-up to Sparta Prague earlier in the evening opened the door for Rangers to qualify for the knockout stages.
Despite not being quite as poor as the return fixture, as Aris beat the Gers 2-1 in October, fans still expected the Ibrox to be bouncing at full-time with a win in the bag. The team had other ideas, with a rather flat showing in a game they were favourites to win.
It is unfair to target just Lammers. Cantwell was hooked after 36 minutes much to the annoyance of the Ibrox faithful, with Clement disappointed that he could not follow simple instructions to stay on the wing, which would create width and stretch the opposition.
McCausland was the only real shining light on an otherwise dark, gloomy night in Glasgow. The youngster took the challenge in his stride, opening his professional account with a fine finish from just inside the penalty area.
It must be said that much more was expected of Jose Cifuentes, having looked to finally be earning the manager’s trust after a slow start to his Rangers career. But he was almost non-existent in midfield.
Both defenders, John Souttar and Ben Davies, can be said to have been just as bad, failing to defend adequately for the Aris opener.
In general, it was a hugely disappointing night and a massive opportunity missed.
In other Rangers news, Michael Stewart claims the Light Blues can’t win the title but says they have a “much bigger statement” to make.