A lot of Rangers fans are moaning about chances wasted | OneFootball

There’s a lot of talk today about Rangers’ profligacy in front of goal at the Eleda Stadion in Malmo, with two goals scored but a tonne of big gilt-edge chances blown as well.

In a league format, as the Europa competition now is, goals scored now matter a lot more, because they could be the difference between 8th place and the rest, just like with the Scottish Premiership.

And there’s no denying for the excellent performance and result in Sweden that Rangers undeniably produced, the age-old ‘wastefulness’ that has dogged Rangers for many years reared its head again.

Realistically, had Rangers taken the massive chances they carved out, it’s no exaggeration to suggest it could have been closer to 0-6 than 0-2. It could even have been more.

But then equally there’s a reason that Vaclav Cerny, Tom Lawrence and Cyriel Dessers are playing for Rangers in the Scottish Premiership and not Manchester City in the Premier League.

If these guys were all taking all of these chances, or the majority of them, they’d be star striker for Citeh like Erling Haaland is, or their playmaker like Kevin De Bruyne.

Rangers wouldn’t have got Dessers for £6M from relegated Cremonese if Dessers finished most chances he gets – he’d have ended up at Juve, Milan, Inter.

The difference between Dessers and Haaland is the clinical ability to finish his chances under pressure – that’s a hard skill, and the best strikers are those who finish more than the lesser ones do.

With legends like Ally McCoist demanding Rangers’ clinical edge improves, he is being a little unfair. He himself missed an absolute tonne as well back in the day, Rangers fans of a certain vintage will remember the many misses from the man, and if he was finishing the lot he too would have been touted by the likes of Man Utd and Liverpool, way back when.

Some fans might point at Celtic, saying their players are more clinical, finding 5 v the Slovaks, and nailing 14 in the league to Rangers’ 9.

And they’re right. Because they cost more and are generally better players – it’s why they sell Matt O’Riley to Brighton for £30M. He’s a better player than Tom Lawrence. He got his PL move. It’s not rocket science.

Rangers are paying £2.5M for a striker in Igamane, Celtic just spent £11M on one.

So Rangers’ cutting edge is relative to the quality of player that we have.

And that level, at the moment, is not quite up there with better teams of Rangers’ past, and Rangers are just unlikely to nail the majority of chances they get.

It is what it is.