Rangers domestic form, added to the impressive start to the season made by Aberdeen, meant that this was the biggest fixture between the two sides for years as pressure on Philippe Clement refuses to go away.
The manager knew that he had to trust his squad to get a result and hope that the finishing on show was better than that seen at Ibrox against St Mirren, losing Vaclav Cerny to injury didn’t help.
Here are your Rangers player ratings for the trip to Aberdeen as the away days woes struck again.
Aberdeen vs Rangers player ratings
With the Scottish Premiership title race slipping away, this is how the Rangers players scored:
Jack Butland – 7
Nothing he could do about the opening goal other than berate his two centre-halves for not marking and Neraysho Kasanwirjo for ball watching.
Kept Rangers in the game at half-time by saving Jamie McGrath’s penalty.
It was a similar story in the second-half as he made two good stops before his defence let him down for Aberdeen’s second.
James Tavernier – 3
For the first 20 minutes, the skipper was handling everything that Duk was throwing at him, for the rest of the first-half, he had a nightmare.
As with when he plays against Daizen Maeda, he must know by now what Duk is going to do and attempt to out-muscle him, however, he was soft and it was only by the help of his teammates that he got away with it.
At fault for Aberdeen’s second. All he had to do was put the ball out for a corner, instead, all he did was create the chaos that led to the goal by not dealing with the cross.
Neraysho Kasanwirjo – 4
Given the nod ahead of Jefte, the Netherlands Under-21 international was solid enough in 1v1 duels, however, he failed to check his shoulder for Nicky Devlin waiting to open the scoring.
Offered little going forwards and only supported Nedim Bajrami on the odd occasion when an overlapping run would have created more space for the Albanian.
Leon Balogun – 5
Saved a near certain goal at 0-0 when he got a toe to a through ball to Ester Sokler but didn’t cover himself in glory with Aberdeen’s opener.
John Souttar – 5
As with Balogun, had dealt with everything that was thrown at him until the opening goal when they both failed to deal with the cross.
Hugely unlucky to see handball given against him when he went to head the ball and it deflected off Tom Lawrence.
Nicolas Raskin – 8
Rangers best outfield player again and looked to get his team on the front foot whenever he had the ball.
Had to put in a big shift with Aberdeen looking to go over the top as soon as they won possession.
Has set the standard that others need to raise their levels to in terms of intent and intensity.
Connor Barron – 5
Dealt with the abuse from the Aberdeen fans well, kept it simple, ran himself into the ground and showed more determination than most in the away side.
Unfortunately, he was daydreaming when there was an obvious overlap from MacKenzie whose cross led to Aberdeen scoring their second.
Nedim Bajrami – 7
Continues to be robbed by his teammates in that he is providing a quality that deserves better.
Decided to take matters into his own hands and beat three Aberdeen players in scoring Rangers equaliser in what is the latest example of why playing on the left is a good idea.
Alongside Raskin, didn’t deserve to be on the losing side.
Tom Lawrence – 3
Philippe Clement keeps picking Tom Lawrence in these games despite him never having any influence on them.
Simply doesn’t have the pace or physicality to deal with the intensity from these away fixtures.
Cyriel Dessers – 3
One of Aberdeen’s best players in the first-half as a series of loose passes started counterattacks for the home team.
Offered nothing and should have been hooked earlier.
Ross McCausland – 3
As with Dessers, seemed to keep starting attacks for Aberdeen rather than his own team.
Offered nothing in attack but was unlucky not to bring Rangers back into the game due to Dessers being offside.
Substitutes
Dujon Sterling – 7
Offered more in the first five minutes of the second-half than McCausland did in the whole of the first with a couple of powerful runs and continued to add a physical threat as well as a dribbling power that had been missing.
Ianis Hagi – 5
Tried to make something happen but didn’t have enough time to get on the ball.
Jefte – 5
Showed the effort and desire needed but couldn’t create anything of note from a more advanced left wing role.
Hamza Igamane – 5
It was only a surprise to see him have to wait so long to replace the ineffective Dessers.
