Glasgow Rangers finished their final match at Ibrox in the 2022/23 Scottish Premiership campaign with a 2-2 draw against Hearts on Wednesday night.
Lawrence Shankland scrambled the ball into the back of the net inside the opening minute of the match and had VAR to thank as they overruled the linesman’s offside decision in order to award the goal.
The Light Blues struggled to break Hearts down for the majority of the first half but eventually found their equaliser through Todd Cantwell as the midfielder rode a challenge in the middle of the park before bursting through to slot a brilliant left-footed shot into the bottom corner.
Michael Beale‘s team then started the second half with a bang as Fashion Sakala capitalised on a mistake at the back to prod the ball into the back of the net in the 47th minute.
Despite the home side’s dominance, Hearts were able to find an equaliser in the 94th minute of the game as Ryan Jack’s poor attempt at a clearance resulted in Garang Kuol prodding the ball past Allan McGregor.
How did James Tavernier perform against Hearts?
Beale will surely be frustrated with the way that his side failed to pick up all three points and the head coach was let down by one of his star performers as captain James Tavernier put in a rare shocker at right-back.
The Englishman has averaged a terrific Sofascore rating of 7.65 in the Premiership this season – the highest of any player in the squad – but recorded a score of 6.7 on Wednesday night, which is his lowest rating since he received a 6.5 against Kilmarnock in January.
This shows that it was an out-of-character display from the skipper, who did not show his usual quality in or out of possession for the side.
As per Sofascore, the right-back lost the ball a whopping 28 times from 95 touches and failed with ten of his 11 attempted crosses. Whereas, he has averaged 22.9 losses of possession and completed 30% of his crosses over the course of the league season, which suggests that he was not at his usual level in the final third.
This means that he wasted too many opportunities to create chances for his teammates with the space that was afforded to him on the right flank, which resulted in Rangers being unable to kill the game off at 2-1 and presented the opposition with encouragement to go on and snatch a draw.
Defensively, Tavernier was also dribbled past twice – 1.1 more times than his average per game – and was caught out for the opening goal inside the first minute of the match as his poor headed clearance allowed Shankland to give Hearts the lead.
Instead of clearing the ball from danger, he caused chaos in his own box and that left Rangers chasing the game almost immediately.
Therefore, the 31-year-old cost Beale dearly with his rare shocker at both ends of the pitch and the head coach will be hoping that this level of performance does not become a regular occurrence heading into the 2023/24 campaign.
