Glasgow Rangers head coach Danny Rohl got off to the worst possible start in charge of the Ibrox giants with a 3-0 defeat to Brann in the Europa League on Thursday night.
The Light Blues boss arrived at the club earlier this week to replace Russell Martin in the dugout and got a firsthand look at the issues that have plagued the season so far.
Three avoidable goals were conceded, only one ‘big chance’ was created, no goals were scored. Rohl will be struggling to come up with positives to take away from the game, beyond the performance of Jack Butland.
Why Jack Butland is already undroppable for Danny Rohl
The former England international showed his class against Brann, in spite of the result, with some excellent work between the sticks to help his side out.
Butland made an excellent early save down to his right after Nasser Djiga was caught out, but had no chance for the opening goal that was converted from close range.
Per Sofascore, the experienced shot-stopper completed all three of his run-outs, which shows that he was proactive in sweeping up behind his defenders to prevent the hosts from creating even more chances.
Despite conceding three goals, Butland only conceded 0.45 more than expected, per Sofascore. This means that there was little more that he could have done to affect the result.
Whilst Butland may already be undroppable for Rohl, because of his strong display in the loss, Joe Rothwell is one of the players who should be immediately dropped.
Why Danny Rohl should drop Joe Rothwell
The German tactician should immediately drop the central midfielder from the starting line-up because the Russell Martin signing failed to impose himself on the game in midfield.
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As aforementioned, Rangers were too easy to create chances against and they did not create enough quality chances of their own to get back into the game.
Rothwell’s performance played a part in their struggles in and out of possession, as the experienced Englishman offered little to the team aside from composure in his passing game.
Minutes
64
Pass accuracy
93%
Accurate long passes
1
Dribbles completed
0
Key passes
0
Big chances created
0
Tackles attempted
0
Duels won
0/2
As you can see in the table above, the central midfielder did not create any chances for his teammates in 64 minutes on the pitch, and he failed to win a single duel in the middle of the park.
These statistics show that the summer signing from Bournemouth did not get about the field to disrupt the opposition, who strolled to a 3-0 win, and he did not show enough creativity in his use of the ball to drag Rangers back into the match.
Rothwell had fewer touches (31) than Butland (48) did between the sticks, per Sofascore, which further speaks to the lack of influence that the 30-year-old midfielder had for the Light Blues.
Rohl, therefore, should brutally ditch the central midfielder from the starting XI ahead of the club’s trip to face Kilmarnock in the Scottish Premiership on Sunday, because he did not show enough on or off the ball.
It is a concerning trend for Rothwell, signed by Martin, because he has also lost 54% of his ground duels and assisted one goal in eight appearances in the Premiership, which shows that he has not been outstanding domestically or in Europe.
The 30-year-old midfielder may need to show Rohl more, on and off the ball, to prove to the manager that he deserves a regular place in the starting line-up.