Credit: Imago

James Barker

Fri 27 March 2026 6:10, UK

Rangers‘ 2020-21 Scottish Premiership-winning team were considerably better in many departments than Danny Rohl’s current side.

The 2020-21 season feels like a lifetime ago for Rangers fans, with many highs and lows in the intervening years since.

2025-26 has been a particularly turbulent term, with the disastrous Russell Martin appointment followed by an improvement under Rohl, but still not quite enough yet to see them sitting top of the table.

However, this present day side still have a golden opportunity to be crowned champions of Scotland for the first time since Steven Gerrard’s Gers side of 2020-21.

But, with just seven league matches to go, Rohl’s side are falling significantly short of that Gerrard-led team in a number of aspects.

How do Rangers’ 2020-21 and 2025-26 teams compare?

Gerrard has been touted as a potential Rohl replacement if the German is relieved of his Rangers duties this summer, which may well be the case if his team don’t win the league.

That Gerrard team is one of the best the Ibrox faithful had seen for many years, and remains the modern day gold standard for Gers teams of the present, and the future.

They won the league that year at a total canter, recording 102 points with 32 wins from 38 games, as second-placed Celtic could only muster 77 points.

As such, it would be unfair to hold too much against Rohl for his team being some way off those standards given what he’s had to work with this season, but even still, this Rangers team are miles off that side.

As per Sofascore, that 2020-21 team missed just 1.3 chances per game compared to the 2.2 missed by this 2025-26 side, showing just how wide the levels of ruthlessness in front of goal there are between the two.

Gerrard’s side also dominate the possession numbers with 65.7 per cent per game, putting an independently impressive 58.5 per cent from Rohl’s team to shame.

Remarkably, they only conceded an average of 0.3 goals per game too, but there are some underlying areas where Rohl’s Rangers are stronger than Gerrard’s.

This current team have won more duels per game with a 52.5 per cent win rate compared to their 52.1 per cent, and have been caught offside less per game too, with 1.6 offside calls against compared to 1.9 respectively.

Rohl’s side have also won 17.4 tackles per game compared to the 13.7 by the 2020-21 team, although that’s caveated by the fact that Gerrard’s team didn’t need to make as many tackles because of their monopolisation of the ball.

What did Gerrard’s Rangers have that Rohl’s doesn’t?

One of the first obvious differences between Gerrard’s title-winning Rangers team and Rohl’s current one is the quality in the attacking third, but why was that?

Well, Gerrard’s side had goals throughout the team, with Kemar Roofe (14), Alfredo Morelos (12), James Tavernier (12) and Ryan Kent (10) all hitting double figures for goals that year.

You also had the likes of Ianis Hagi (seven) and Joe Aribo (seven) chipping in too, whereas right now, Rangers’ top scorer is Youssef Chermiti on nine.

There was also an abundance of creative threats in that 2020-21 team too, with Hagi (11), Tavernier (nine), Kent (nine), Borna Barisic (six) and Scott Arfield (five) all contributing good amounts of assists, whilst Rangers’ current leader in that area is Nicolas Raskin with six.

In short, that Rangers team really was a pick your poison for the opposition, whereas this current Rangers side do feel over-reliant on certain players like Chermiti, Mikey Moore and Raskin to win them games.

Therefore, one big message that Rohl needs to get across ahead of the run-in is that he needs more players in more areas stepping up, as currently, too much weight is being placed on too few shoulders.

Updated 24/7 with expert analysis from the heart of Govan.