James Tavernier proved his importance to Rangers yet again with vital contributions in a 2-2 draw with Aberdeen.
Tavernier has received plenty of criticism so far this season and Wednesday night was no exception.
A large number of supporters claim he’s hampering the team and are determined to see him dropped for Nathan Patterson.
Clearly, Patterson is an extremely exciting young talent who’s already produced strong performances at club and international level. If he played any other position, he’d almost certainly walk into the team.
However, many are – intentionally or otherwise – overlooking the enormous importance of Tavernier to suit their own agenda.
Prior to the Aberdeen game, Rangers had beaten both Brondby and St Mirren in the space of a few days. Tavernier assisted Leon Balogun’s opener against the Danish champions and Alfredo Morelos’ winner in Paisley.
Despite those two vital contributions in narrow victories, calls for him to be replaced continued in the lead up to, during and after the clash with the Dons.
The 29-year-old certainly wasn’t at his best in open play at Ibrox, losing the ball on a number of occasions and allowing Scott Brown to make his way into the box unchallenged to score the visitors’ second goal.
He held his hands up regarding that error after the match [RangersTV] but on a night when Rangers lacked intensity and quality all over the pitch, it was he who dragged his team to a share of the points.
Tavernier’s top-class delivery from the right put the ball on the plate for Alfredo Morelos to pull one back in the 20th minute and it was from the right-back’s teasing ball into the area that the hosts would win a penalty with ten minutes remaining.
With Kemar Roofe off the pitch, Tav stepped up and found the bottom left corner from 12 yards under immense pressure.
Contrary to what some detractors may claim, penalty-taking is a specialist skill, not one of the responsibilities of a captain, and he deserves credit for banishing the memories of recent misses and securing a point in a game the Gers arguably deserved nothing from.
It’s easy to say that others would also have scored if given the opportunity, but Ianis Hagi, Alfredo Morelos and Scott Arfield all failed the last time they were on spot-kick duty.
Tavernier isn’t at his best right now but he’s contributed a lot more than most others both in this campaign and in previous and he deserves more backing from the fanbase.
Meanwhile, elsewhere on Wednesday night, a Rangers loanee was shown a straight red card for a ‘nasty challenge’.
