8/10 a man possessed, teammate’s head elsewhere – Rangers player ratings vs Motherwell
Rangers found a way to grind out a 1-0 win over Motherwell at Ibrox on Saturday, but the manner in which they got there tells you almost everything you need to know about where this squad currently stands — moments of real quality sitting uncomfortably alongside performances that raised serious questions, all wrapped up in a result that will be gratefully received without necessarily being wholly convincing. Derek McInnes will take the three points and the platform they provide for a genuine run of momentum, but a closer look at individual performances shows a squad still very much a work in progress, even as the results column starts to look considerably healthier than it did a fortnight ago.
The afternoon didn’t begin the way anyone inside Ibrox would have wanted. Lawrence Shankland, the man who had scored all three of Rangers’ goals across their previous two matches and looked every bit the focal point McInnes had hoped for when signing him from Hearts over the summer, pulled up with what appeared to be a hamstring problem inside the opening eight minutes and had to be withdrawn. For a Rangers side that has already lost Youssef Chermiti to a long-term ACL injury, the sight of their in-form captain hobbling off so early in proceedings will have sent a genuine wave of anxiety around the stadium, and it’s a worry that will hang over the club until the full extent of the issue becomes clear in the coming days.
What happened next, though, offered about as immediate and emphatic a response as McInnes could have hoped for. Ryan Naderi, introduced from the bench to replace his stricken captain, wasted no time making his own mark on the game, dispossessing Motherwell goalkeeper Alex Paulsen right on the edge of his own box before calmly tapping home for his first Scottish Premiership goal. It was a moment of real opportunism, the kind of instinctive, high-pressing intervention that can completely change the complexion of a match, and it meant Rangers found themselves ahead inside the first ten minutes despite having just lost their most important attacking player to injury.
Rangers had the chance to put real daylight between themselves and Motherwell before half-time, winning a penalty that could have doubled their advantage and taken much of the tension out of the remaining hour of football. Instead, Kim Min-su saw his effort from the spot drag well wide of the target, a costly miss that meant Rangers were left to defend a single-goal cushion for far longer than they would have liked against a Motherwell side that had shown, throughout the opening weeks of the season, exactly the kind of quality that makes them a genuine threat to sides ranked above them in the table.
That missed penalty ended up shaping the entire complexion of the second half. Motherwell came out and pressed hard after the interval, creating a series of nervy moments for the Ibrox faithful as they searched for an equaliser that would have represented a hugely significant psychological blow given last season’s history between these two sides at this exact venue. To Rangers’ credit, and not without a fair share of fortune, they held firm, with the visitors ultimately unable to convert their own promising openings into anything more than pressure and possession.
If there was one player who fully justified McInnes’ faith and silenced the doubts that had followed him for much of the opening month of the season, it was Djeidi Gassama. The winger has long been a figure who divides opinion among Rangers supporters — capable of the kind of moments that make jaws drop, but just as often guilty of frustrating inconsistency that leaves his end product well short of his obvious talent. Against Motherwell, though, he produced the kind of complete performance that Rangers have been waiting to see from him since he arrived at the club.
The numbers alone tell a remarkable story. Gassama completed one hundred per cent of his attempted dribbles over the course of the match, a genuinely outstanding return against a well-organised Motherwell defence that had conceded precious little across their unbeaten start to the season. He was directly involved in the game’s pivotal moment in the final third when he drew the penalty that Kim ultimately failed to convert, his direct running and close control repeatedly forcing Motherwell’s defenders into panicked, reactive decisions rather than allowing them to dictate terms.
What separated this performance from some of his previous outings, though, was the completeness of his overall display. Gassama wasn’t merely a menace going forward — he put in genuine defensive graft as well, winning five of his eight ground duels and claiming every single aerial duel he contested across the ninety minutes. That’s not the profile of a mercurial winger drifting in and out of games purely on the strength of his attacking instincts; that’s a complete team performance from a player who, on this evidence, has the tools to become a genuinely important figure for Rangers if he can find a way to bottle this level of application on a consistent basis. Given the volume of competition McInnes has assembled in wide areas over the summer, that consistency is exactly what Gassama now needs to find if he wants to keep hold of his starting berth heading into the coming weeks.
If Gassama’s performance was the story of the afternoon in the best possible sense, Nicolas Raskin’s was very much the opposite, and the context surrounding it makes his display considerably more difficult to simply write off as an isolated bad game. Just days before this fixture, it emerged that Raskin had agreed personal terms with Beşiktaş before Rangers ultimately rejected an offer from the Turkish club, bringing to a close, at least for now, one of the more protracted and closely watched sagas of the entire transfer window. Against that backdrop, his performance against Motherwell looked, at times, like that of a player whose mind was very much elsewhere.
Raskin simply did not look interested for large stretches of this match, sitting notably deeper than his midfield partner Dan Neil, despite Neil being the more natural ball-winner of the two in that pairing — an inversion of roles that suggested a player either unwilling or unable to engage with the physical and combative side of his game that has typically been one of his defining qualities. His first-half display was genuinely alarming by his own high standards: he failed to win a single ground duel or aerial duel across the opening forty-five minutes, and made no defensive contributions of any note during a period when Rangers needed exactly that kind of protection in front of their back four.
It’s difficult not to draw a direct line between that performance and the widely reported transfer situation. There’s a natural and understandable question being asked around Ibrox now about whether Raskin, having come so close to a move that would have taken him to Turkey, is simply playing it safe physically, wary of picking up an injury that could scupper any future departure once overseas transfer windows still open elsewhere eventually close. That’s speculation rather than confirmed fact, but the pattern of his performance — anaemic in the tackle, cautious in his positioning, uncharacteristically passive throughout — lends itself to exactly that kind of interpretation, whether or not it reflects what’s genuinely going through his head.
To his credit, there was a flicker of the old Raskin in the second half, when he was presented with a golden opportunity to get on the scoresheet after a moment of exceptional individual quality. Gassama’s wing play created the chance, before a cleverly directed headed pass from Naderi teed up Raskin with the goal gaping. He couldn’t quite convert it, but the fact that he was even in that position, having contributed so little to the game up to that point, offers at least some hope that the old Raskin remains in there somewhere, whatever the noise surrounding his immediate future.
Ivor Pandur — 7. A steady, largely uneventful afternoon between the posts, doing exactly what was required of him without needing to produce anything spectacular, which is precisely the kind of reliability McInnes has come to expect since his summer arrival.
James Penrice — 7.Solid throughout at left-back, continuing to justify his place ahead of the returning Tuur Rommens with a performance built on positional discipline rather than any single standout moment.
Olwethu Makhanya — 7. Composed once again in the heart of the defence, offering the same calm, ball-playing presence that has quickly made him a reassuring fixture in this Rangers backline.
Emmanuel Fernandez — 7. A response, of sorts, to the criticism that followed his struggles against Falkirk in midweek. Considerably more assured on this occasion, Fernandez went the entire match before eventually being withdrawn for Ben Godfrey deep into stoppage time, giving McInnes at least some evidence that his decision to retain faith in the Argentine wasn’t entirely misplaced.
Dujon Sterling — 6. A solid if unspectacular full debut of sorts in this particular role, doing enough defensively to justify his inclusion ahead of Kosta Nedeljkovic without doing anything to fully settle the debate over who should hold that position long-term.
Nicolas Raskin — 5. As detailed above, a genuinely concerning off-day from one of Rangers’ most important players, compounded by the swirling context of his recent transfer saga. The moment of quality that led to his second-half chance offers a sliver of encouragement, but this was, by his own standards, a performance well below the level Rangers need from him.
Dan Neil — 7. Arguably the more effective of Rangers’ two central midfielders on the day, doing the unglamorous work that Raskin largely left undone and giving McInnes a reminder of exactly why he was brought in from Sunderland over the summer.
Findlay Curtis — 7. Continued his impressive start to life in Rangers’ first team, maintaining the level of performance that has already made him one of the more pleasant surprises to emerge from this squad in the opening weeks of the season.
Minsu Kim — 6. A missed penalty inevitably weighs heavily on any individual rating, and while his overall performance retained flashes of the quality that’s made him such an exciting addition to this squad, the failure to convert from the spot will be the abiding memory of his afternoon before he was withdrawn for Kevin Kelsy on 69 minutes.
Djeidi Gassama — 8. The standout performer by a distance, as detailed above, and a genuinely complete display that will have given McInnes real encouragement about what this player can offer when everything clicks. Withdrawn for Daisuke Yokota on 69 minutes having thoroughly earned his afternoon off.
Lawrence Shankland — N/A. Withdrawn just eight minutes into proceedings with what looked like a hamstring issue, too early in the match to warrant any meaningful rating, though the injury itself will be the single biggest concern to emerge from this fixture regardless of the eventual scoreline.
Daisuke Yokota — 5. Introduced for Gassama in the closing stages, with limited time to make any significant impact on proceedings.
Kevin Kelsy — 5. His first involvement in Rangers colours since his deadline-day arrival, coming on for Kim with just over twenty minutes remaining. A low-key introduction to life at Ibrox, but simply getting minutes into his legs after a whirlwind few weeks represents a step forward regardless of the rating attached.
Ryan Naderi — 7. The match-winner, in the most literal sense. Called upon far earlier than anyone would have anticipated following Shankland’s injury, Naderi rose to the occasion superbly, scoring his first Scottish Premiership goal with a smart, opportunistic finish and later showing further quality with the headed assist that nearly brought Raskin a goal of his own. A genuinely important contribution from a player who might otherwise have expected only a late cameo off the bench
Three wins on the bounce represents genuine, tangible momentum for a Rangers side that endured a thoroughly miserable start to the season, one that included elimination from both the Europa League and Conference League qualifying rounds and a run of results that had prompted serious external questioning of McInnes’ position. Coming so soon after pundit Aiden McGeady’s pointed warning that the Ibrox board’s record £35 million summer outlay leaves little room for prolonged underperformance, this kind of result — however unconvincing in patches — buys the manager exactly the kind of breathing space he needed heading into a run of increasingly significant fixtures.
But the performance itself offers plenty for McInnes to work on. A missed penalty, a captain forced off with a worrying injury inside ten minutes, and a genuinely alarming off-day from one of the squad’s most important midfielders are not the ingredients of a side that’s fully firing on all cylinders, even if the final scoreline suggests otherwise. Gassama’s performance offers real encouragement about the individual quality present within this squad when everything aligns, but the maturity Rangers now need to show is turning isolated moments of brilliance, like this one, into the kind of week-in, week-out consistency that will be required if they’re serious about closing the gap on Celtic at the top of the table.
The most pressing concern to emerge from this victory has nothing to do with tactics or individual ratings at all — it’s the fitness of Lawrence Shankland, whose hamstring issue could yet prove a significant blow to a Rangers side that has already lost its first-choice striker for the season in Chermiti. If Shankland’s injury proves serious, McInnes will find himself leaning even more heavily on the likes of Naderi and the newly introduced Kelsy to shoulder the goalscoring burden that the Hearts captain had carried so impressively across his opening two-and-a-half matches in Govan.
There’s also the matter of Raskin’s mental and physical state heading into the coming weeks. Whatever the truth behind his subdued performance — genuine disappointment at the collapsed Beşiktaş move, a deliberate effort to stay fit and available for a future transfer, or simply an off-day that happened to coincide with an eventful week of speculation — McInnes will need to have a conversation with his midfielder sooner rather than later to ensure this doesn’t become a recurring theme. Rangers cannot afford to have one of their most important players operating at anything less than full commitment, regardless of the swirling noise around his future, particularly with a genuinely difficult run of fixtures still to come.
For now, though, McInnes will take the three points, the extended winning run, and the individual brilliance of Gassama’s performance as the headline positives from an afternoon that, on balance, could easily have gone very differently had Motherwell shown a touch more composure in front of goal themselves.
