Former Celtic midfielder Scott Allan thinks Rangers are not playing the style of football that explains why Robin Propper was brought to the club in the summer.
Rangers haven’t made an ideal start to their season having already dropped out of the Champions League and losing to arch-rivals Celtic in the Old Firm derby.
Philippe Clement’s side have issues on and off the pitch at the moment and fans are seriously perturbed by the situation the club find themselves in as we emerge from the international break.
Amongst the many gripes supporters have, style of play on the park is certainly one of them. Many pundits and fans alike continue to point out that they cannot see what Clement is trying to achieve with his players on the pitch.
And Allan thinks that lack of structure or identity isn’t playing into the hands of £1.5m central defender Propper, who joined from FC Twente.
Scott Allan on Rangers style of play
Scott Allan was speaking on the latest PLZ Soccer podcast and interjected with his point after Tam McManus said Propper hasn’t been impressive so far this season for the Light Blues.
McManus told the panel: “They’ve signed the boy Propper for £1.5m but I’ve not been impressed so far by him. I haven’t been impressed with him, I think (Leon) Balogun is Rangers’ best centre-halve still, honestly.”
Allan then said: “I think they’ve signed Propper as if they’re going to build out (from the back) but they’ve not been playing that way and that’s what we’ve all been touching on there.
“There’s no structure in that team where they’re moving the ball into a certain area for their best players to get on it. They haven’t been playing like that.”
Stats suggest Propper is long ball player
Allan believes Rangers recruited Propper to help them play out from the back – but stats from the 2023/24 season when the Dutchman played for FC Twente say otherwise.
Sofascore data tells us that one of Propper’s strengths is long ball distribution and in the Eredivisie last campaign, he completed 42% of these – that’s almost a one in two success rate.
And despite what fans or pundits may say, Rangers do have a style of play – although it isn’t very pretty. Clement likes to be direct by getting the ball forward to Cyriel Dessers and playing for second balls.
That’s been a pattern so far this season, although fans would be right to counter that in saying that there has been times where Rangers have played out from the back, therefore suiting the narrative that Clement doesn’t deliver a consistent message to his players when it comes to style of play.
