'Really poor' - McCoist expected better from Rangers star who lost the ball 29 times

Ally McCoist expected better from Rangers right-back James Tavernier against Motherwell on Saturday. 

Rangers survived an early red card for centre-back Leon Balogun in their 3-1 win at Fir Park, closing the gap at the top of the Scottish Premiership to three points ahead of Celtic’s trip to Ross County on Sunday afternoon.

It was Tavernier who effectively sealed the victory when he converted a penalty on 62 minutes to establish a two-goal cushion.

Even as Giovanni van Bronckhorst rang the changes ahead of Thursday’s trip to RB Leipzig for the Europa League semi-final first leg, the skipper played the full 90 minutes for the 32nd time in 34 SPFL matches this season.

Speaking live on Sky Sports during the match, the Gers’ all-time leading goalscorer McCoist expressed his frustration at a Tavernier cross that was easily dealt with by Motherwell.

“It’s a really poor delivery from someone whose delivery is usually really good,” he said, as quoted by Ibrox News.

Even though he scored, it’s fair to say that Tavernier could have played better.

The £6.3million-rated star is perhaps his side’s foremost creator, with a team-high 14 assists under his belt this season.

But even though he swung in seven crosses, he failed to create a chance on Saturday. Indeed, only two of his deliveries found a team-mate (via SofaScore).

Overall, 17 of his 51 passes (equating to 33%) and seven of his eight long balls, went astray.

He lost possession more than any other player on the pitch (29 times, two more than next-worst Borna Barisic).

The £24,000-per-week man may hope to be more effective when Rangers travel to Germany for perhaps the biggest game of their season so far.

In other news, the stats showed that this trio struggled most vs