Tom Lawrence has labelled the fans’ criticism that Rangers have frequently been boring and predictable this season as unfair.
The Light Blues’ performances this season have left a lot to be desired as they sit third in the Scottish Premiership table with 16 points from eight games.Last Sunday’s (20 October) trip to Kilmarnock was a chance to reduce the gap with Celtic and Aberdeen to three points, but it was not to be as they lost 1-0 at Rugby Park.
As the Gers now look to return to winning ways against FCSB in the Europa League at Ibrox on Thursday (24 October), Lawrence was questioned about the team’s style of play by a fan at the pre-match press conference.
“Fans around you, after Sunday, have labelled this Rangers team as boring and predictable, too many long balls, too many slow passes. How do you respond to that as one of the attacking players in the team and is that level of criticism something you accept?”, a fan from Four Lads Had A Dream asked.In response, Lawrence acknowledged Rangers were lacklustre against Kilmarnock, but added that criticism is unfair for their previous games.
“I think that’s fair for the game on Sunday, I don’t feel it’s fair for the previous games. I think we’ve created enough chances in previous games”, he said.“Sunday, I don’t know why we performed like that, but we need to make sure we don’t perform like that ever again at this club while we’re here.“Me being a creative player, I have to create chances, score goals, and we just need to be a lot quicker.
“Like you said, we were too lacklustre in play [against Kilmarnock] and I’m sure it’ll be a lot better on Thursday night.”Is Tom Lawrence’s ‘unfair’ claim about Rangers criticism right?
While Lawrence’s willingness to acknowledge Rangers were poor against Kilmarnock is appreciable, him dubbing criticism of the team’s overall style of play as unfair is questionable.
For starters, the Light Blues have scored 12 goals in the league this season. This is 50 per cent fewer than Celtic and only Motherwell have a lesser tally among clubs in the top six.
The criticism about the Gers playing too many long balls is also valid as they play 25.6 accurate long balls per game (FotMob). This is the fifth-highest in the league, while Celtic and Aberdeen sit 10th and 12th respectively.
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