Sports
Rangers dud was as “rotten” as Miovski, now he’s Rohl’s most improved player
Glasgow Rangers head coach Danny Rohl should be delighted with the way that his team ran out 3-0 winners against Kilmarnock with relative ease on Saturday night.
Two goals from Bojan Miovski and a strike off the bench from Mikey Moore sealed all three points for the Gers, who had drawn their previous two games to Dundee United and Falkirk in a frustrating manner.
The German head coach should be particularly pleased with Miovski’s two-goal burst because it will provide the centre-forward with some much-needed confidence after a poor start to life at Ibrox
Why Bojan Miovski has been Rangers’ most frustrating player
Out of all of the club’s summer signings, the Macedonia international has been their most frustrating player because he has not delivered at the level that everyone knows he is capable of.
Unlike most of the other signings, Miovski arrived as a proven Scottish Premiership performer who is in the prime years of his career, at 26, after a return of 32 league goals in two seasons with Aberdeen.
Prior to Saturday’s game against Kilmarnock, though, the left-footed forward had only scored one goal in nine league starts for the Light Blues, per Sofascore, and has lost 68% of his physical duels in the division.
Miovski was much improved against Kilmarnock, with two goals, which makes his poor form up to that point all the more frustrating, because that is the kind of performance that he can deliver.
It’s a display that Rohl recognised too. In quotes taken from PA Media, the manager said: “We had a conversation with each other and then he made step-by-step a huge step forwards against Dundee United. He had some good chances. He’s more adaptable at the moment, not just staying on the last line, it helps in building up as well.
“I’m happy when a striker scores two goals, it’s fantastic. In general, we spoke about what I demand from him. He told also what he is thinking at the moment. And then I think, especially after the Falkirk game, we spoke about spaces, what I want to see from the centre-forward and big spaces.”
The 26-year-old marksman is not the most improved player under Rohl, though, as that title has to go to Nasser Djiga, who has stepped up in recent weeks.
Why Djiga is the most improved Rangers player under Rohl
After Rohl’s fourth match in charge, against Celtic in the League Cup, Heart & Hand content creator David Edgar described the Wolves loanee as a “rotten” signing.
Football FanCast even suggested playing James Tavernier at centre-back at the start of November because of Djiga’s poor form for the club up to that point.
That criticism was fair after several high-profile errors, including a red card against Dundee, an inexplicable defensive mix-up against Club Brugge, and Four Lads Had A Dream claimed that he “genuinely looks lost” during the loss to Celtic in the semi-final defeat that led to Edgar dubbing him “rotten”.
It did not seem like there was any way back for the Premier League loanee, who was as ‘rotten’ as Miovski was, but his run of form since John Souttar and Derek Cornelius picked up injuries has been an impressive response to that criticism.
Because there was an argument, due to his high-profile mistakes, that Djiga was the worst performer in the club, it is only logical that his recent showings make him the most improved player in the squad.
Whilst Miovski scored two goals against Kilmarnock, the striker had not scored in his previous 11 games and is yet to show his quality consistently, and the Wolves defender has now strung several performances together.
|
Since John Souttar’s injury |
|
|---|---|
|
Premiership |
Nasser Djiga |
|
Appearances |
4 |
|
Sofascore rating |
7.3 |
|
Clean sheets |
2 |
|
Tackles won |
6/8 |
|
Clearances |
18 |
|
Ground duels won |
14/18 |
|
Aerial duels won |
7/14 |
|
Error led to shot or goal |
0 |
As you can see in the table above, Djiga has really stepped up in the right-sided centre-back role since Souttar picked up an injury on international duty with Scotland, winning an eye-catching 14 of his 18 ground duels in four league outings.
The Burkina Faso international has shown that he can be reliable at the back for a stretch of games, with no direct errors leading to shots or goals, whilst being dominant in his defensive duels.
Rangers have kept two clean sheets in the last four league games with Djiga at the heart of the defence alongside Emmanuel Fernandez, and Rohl will be hoping that his new defensive partnership continues to shine over the festive period.
The 23-year-old loanee, in particular, needs to prove that his current form is not a flash in the pan and that he has put the mistakes that he made earlier in the season behind him to be a reliable option for the German manager moving forward.
Rangers prioritising move to sign “strong” 6ft 4 box-crasher after scouting mission
He could be Rohl’s first signing.
On current evidence, Djiga is the most improved player under Rohl, going from “rotten” to reliable, but now he needs to do it over a prolonged period of time.
