Mikey Moore shouldn’t be dropped vs Motherwell – he needs to be careful though
Mikey Moore put in one of his worst Rangers performances against Falkirk, but Danny Rohl should keep him in the team for the visit of Motherwell.
The 18-year-old Tottenham loanee has been arguably Rangers’ player of the season so far, and has instantly become a real fan favourite at Ibrox.
His six goals and two assists in 28 Scottish Premiership games have been vital to Gers’ title challenge this term, and he’s sure to have a big say in the destiny of that before it’s all said and done.
However, despite his huge talent and potential, the Spurs winger is still incredibly young and raw, and that has shown itself on a handful of occasions during his time in Glasgow so far.
One of those was in Rangers’ 6-3 win over Falkirk on Sunday, in which he couldn’t stamp his mark on the game.
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How did Mikey Moore perform in Falkirk vs Rangers?
Moore was subbed off at half-time against Falkirk, which was a rare sight to see, with the last time that happening to him being against Aberdeen on 6 January.
It was a brave call for Rohl to make too, as he knows that Moore is the type of player who he ideally wants on the pitch, especially when trailing a game as Gers did by two goals to one at half-time on Sunday.
| Moore’s 25-26 league stats | Result |
| Team of the week inclusions | 3 |
| Goal contributions | 8 |
| Goal conversion | 11% |
| Big chances created | 7 |
| Dribble success | 42% |
But Rohl wanted to shift to a more attacking 4-4-2 system for the second half, and that meant sacrificing Moore to bring on Bojan Miovski.
That worked a treat too, as the Macedonian bagged two goals to help spearhead the comeback, leaving Moore to mull over how his performance had led him to the Gers bench.
As per Sofascore, he registered an expected goals (xG) of just 0.05 and an expected assists (xA) of 0.03 against Falkirk, and also made zero cross attempts with just one shot on goal too.
Moore also took just 18 touches, gave possession away four times, was unsuccessful with his two dribble attempts, made one progressive carry and won zero tackles or ground duels respectively.
Overall, he just wasn’t in the game during the first half against Falkirk, and when he did have the chance to leave his impression on it, he was wasteful in possession and wasn’t able to show his quality.
Rohl should stick with 4-4-2 and Moore vs Motherwell
However, Moore is the type of player who could work even better with a front two ahead of him, and so there’s every chance he would’ve got involved in the flurry of second-half goals against Falkirk had he stayed on the pitch.
As aforementioned, the decision to put Miovski up top with Youssef Chermiti was an inspired one from Rohl, and provided five goals in a single half of football.
That’s pretty compelling evidence to stick with that system when Rangers welcome Motherwell to Ibrox on Sunday, and Moore should be at least given the opportunity to start on the left in this formation.
He could absolutely thrive linking up with both Miovski and Chermiti at the same time, but even if Rohl reverts back to his 4-2-3-1, Moore surely has enough credit in the bank to retain his spot after one bad half of football.
But, he does just need to be a tad careful though, as Thelo Aasgaard is in fine form at the moment, whilst Oliver Antman also came off the bench to grab an assist on Sunday.
Therefore, threats are emerging to Moore’s position in the starting lineup if he can’t shake off that Falkirk display against Motherwell.
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