Clement must boldly drop 3/10 Rangers ace

Glasgow Rangers have a chance to immediately bounce back from their Europa League woes as they prepare to host St Johnstone at Ibrox in the Scottish Premiership this evening.

The Light Blues head into this game off the back of a 4-1 defeat to French side Lyon in Glasgow on Thursday night, thanks to braces from Malick Fofana and Alexandre Lacazette.

Philippe Clement‘s side had won their last four matches in all competitions and had beaten Malmo 2-0 in their first match of the league phase in the Europa League, but were unable to build on that strong form against the Ligue 1 outfit.

The Gers found themselves 3-1 down by half-time and often played themselves into trouble, as much as the likes of Fofana, Rayan Cherki, and Lacazette showed their quality.

After Tom Lawrence made it 1-1 in the 14th minute, Connor Barron played a poor ball back to John Souttar that sent Fofana away to tee up Lacazette for an easy finish in the 19th minute, and it was all downhill after that.

Clement could look to make some changes from the starting XI that was easily beaten by Lyon and one player who should be dropped is winger Vaclav Cerny.

Why Vaclav Cerny should be dropped

The Wolfsburg loanee, once again, failed to justify his position in the line-up. It was another disappointing performance from the Czechia international, who did not make any positive impact in the final third.

Cerny had a huge chance to find the back of the net with the score at 0-0 inside the opening ten minutes. Tom Lawrence’s shot was parried straight to the left-footed forward on his favoured foot and he blazed his effort over the bar, with an open goal in front of him, from six yards out.

The 26-year-old dud has now gone five matches without a single goal or an assist for the Light Blues, and has only made two key passes in that time.

As you can see in the table above, Cerny has struggled badly in the two Europa League games so far, missing two ‘big chances’ and losing 67% of his duels.

The former Eredivisie star has scored one goal and provided one assist in five Premiership matches and needs to do a lot more in the final third to prove that he should be starting week-in-week-out for the Gers, which is why Clement must ditch him from the XI for this match.

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Alongside Cerny, the Belgian head coach should switch up the whole right-hand side for Rangers and boldly drop captain James Tavernier from the line-up tonight.

Why James Tavernier should be dropped

The Rangers skipper was withdrawn from the clash with Lyon in the 61st minute, after a difficult hour at Ibrox, and should now be placed on the bench against St Johnstone.

Tavernier, who was handed a dismal player rating of 3/10 by Glasgow World, struggled in and out of possession against the French outfit on Thursday.

On the ball, the Englishman lost possession 12 times and only completed 70% of his attempted passes, which shows that he gave it back to the away side too often.

The experienced defender also won just two duels in 61 minutes, also losing two, and was caught out for the fourth goal for Lyon as he failed to deal with a ball to the back post and allowed Fofana to sneak in and score from close range.

Tavernier, who is yet to score in six appearances in the Premiership this season, has recorded two assists in the league but should not be immune to being dropped, particularly after a poor showing against Lyon.

His defensive capabilities have been questioned in the past. Former Rangers right-back Steven Whittaker claimed that it is an area of his game that he “has to look at” last year.

Dropping Tavernier from the side, as the captain, could be seen as a big statement by Clement but it would also show all of the players that no one is immune to being taken out of the side. Poor performances should have consequences and that is why the Belgian boss must ruthlessly ditch him from the XI for this clash with St Johnstone.

The player who should replace James Tavernier

Neraysho Kasanwirjo came off the bench against Lyon and caught the eye with a strong display in his 29 minutes on the pitch, in which time Rangers did not concede a goal.

The Feyenoord loanee made one clearance, one block, one interception, one tackle, and one clearance off the line in his short time against the French side. Whereas, Tavernier only made one interception and was dribbled past once in his 61 minutes, with zero clearances, zero tackles, and zero blocks.

These defensive statistics, and the respective scores with each of them on the pitch, suggest that the Dutch youngster outperformed the captain at right-back at Ibrox on Thursday night.

Of course, Kasanwirjo came on with Lyon already 4-1 up and, perhaps, not as motivated to go and score more goals, but he still got stuck in to make vital interventions, which is something that Tavernier did not do during his performance.

The 22-year-old ace, who joined on loan from Feyenoord in the summer transfer window, is yet to start a Premiership match but was in the XI at left-back against Malmo last week.

As you can see in the table above, Kasanwirjo won the majority of his duels and was not dribbled past a single time against the Swedish outfit, whilst he was also composed in possession with a pass success rate of 89%.

The 22-year-old starlet, who made 20 appearances in the Eredivisie during the 2023/24 campaign, should now be handed an opportunity to shine from the start for the first time in the Premiership this evening.

A strong performance from the Dutch ace could keep Tavernier on his toes moving forward, and motivate the skipper to bounce back after the international break.