Analysis Corner: May Mailbag
By Dougie Wright (@dougie_wright)
This weeks Analysis Corner is a mailbag with your questions from Twitter...
This year’s Premiership playoff will see either Hamilton Accies or Partick Thistle fight to retain their top flight status against one of Livingston or Dundee United.
Historically, the arrangement tends to suit the Premiership side here.
In four years of playoffs, the Championship team has only won promotion once. This is usually put down to the Championship team running out of steam having had to play two or four playoff matches before the final.
Whatever happens, I wouldn’t expect a quality game of football. Partick and Hamilton only have one win in their last seven games, while both Championship sides have been very erratic in their recent form- despite heading up the table.
I think (probably) Partick will be ok, but it won’t be pretty.
Spoiler: teams aren’t very good at corners.
Even the best team in the league at them (weirdly bottom of the table Ross County) only score around one every thirty.
Granted, Rangers only getting one goal from 217 corners is particularly nasty. However, it could be worse- just look at Hearts…
Who do you think has been the best player in the bottom six this season? (@AjerRightThere)
The strongest candidate would probably be whoever Motherwell have had as their striker. In the first half of the season, Louis Moult was as explosive as he had been the previous season. When he won a much deserved move to the English Championship, many were sceptical of his replacement.
Curtis Main came to Fir Park having scored roughly a goal every seven games throughout his career.
He was supposed to be replacing a guy who scored around one every two.
While he’s not quite reached that level, he has certainly impressed. He’s strong on the ball, good in the air, links up well and has a fearsome finish on him. Eight goals since January more than justify Motherwell’s gamble on the Englishman.
Honourable mentions to Chris Cadden, Cedric Kipre, Simon Murray, Glen Kamara, Liam Craig and Alex Schalk.
This is a difficult one because a) I’m not sure what sort of tactics Gerrard will fancy using and b) I don’t know which players are on their way out of Ibrox who might need replaced.
However, there have been some great players across the league that Rangers would do well to pick up anyway.
Florian Kamberi was probably the best bit of business a Scottish team did in January. Thirty five shots have turned into seven goals and Hibs are now favourites for second as a result. The Swiss doesn’t just score goals though- he holds the ball up really well. When Rangers play well, it’s usually because Alfredo Morelos is doing this. When he’s not they struggle. So if Rangers can nip in and grab Kamberi on a permanent deal before Hibs do, I think that’d be a good idea.
Eamonn Brophy is another one who’s really caught my eye as an attacker. Exciting things about Brophy:
- He’s very intelligent in knowing how to play against his defender. When he’s against a big, slow guy like Berra, he’ll come deep to pick up the ball and turn. On the other hand, against Celtic’s high line, he’ll tend to start wide and run in the channels.
- He usually makes the right decisions on the ball. Unlike plenty of other players, he knows that he’s probably not going to score from tight angles or long distance. In these situations, he’s more likely to pass then move to receive in a better position rather than go for glory himself.
He’s scored seven goals in a pretty defensive team, and at just 22 years old there’s plenty of time to mould him further.
For more analysis like this, follow Dougie on Twitter (@dougie_wright)