When Alfredo Morelos missed a penalty in the League Cup final defeat to Celtic on Sunday afternoon, plenty of Rangers fans pointed the finger at James Tavernier.
The skipper has been the Gers’ designated penalty taker for a couple of seasons but had come under scrutiny after missing three spot-kicks over the early stages of this campaign.
Many questioned the fact that he didn’t step up this time around, claiming that he ‘bottled’ it on the big occasion.
https://twitter.com/harpoonian/status/1203711887071825920
Yet, all those pointing the finger at the skipper are wrong to do so.
The fact is that Rangers didn’t decide to change their penalty taker on League Cup final day. The decision was made in-house some time ago, likely at the end of October when Tavernier missed against Motherwell.
The reason people are only realising now is because the Gers haven’t been awarded a penalty since then.
It’s not a question of the Englishman bottling it and willingly stepping aside, either.
When asked about penalty duties before the semi-final against Hearts, he insisted he would continue to back himself [Rangers Football Club YouTube], so it must have been a team management decision to hand over responsibility to Morelos.
If any further confirmation was needed, after the game, Steven Gerrard asserted during his BT Sport interview, that it was not a spur of the moment decision and that Morelos was, in fact, the designated taker.
This defeat is a very tough one to stomach, but Tav isn’t the one to take it out on.
The penalty incident had nothing to do with him and far from hiding on the big stage, he was one of the best performers across the 90 minutes. It was the wastefulness of the attacking players which undid Rangers.
Here are our Player Ratings from the disappointing defeat.
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