Ferguson must now instantly drop Clement’s “error-prone” Rangers star

Will a change of manager signal a change in fortune for Ibrox side Rangers?

On Sunday night, following the weekend home defeat at the hands of St Mirren, it was announced that Philippe Clement had been sacked as manager of the Gers, having been, as Findlay Marks of the Scottish Football Show put it, a “dead man walking” ever since the Scottish Cup exit at the hands of Queen’s Park.

The following morning, the club confirmed that former captain Barry Ferguson, who made 409 appearances for the Gers across two spells, would be in interim charge for the rest of the season, alongside Neil McCann, Billy Dodds and Allan McGregor, all of whom are also ex-players.

The Ferguson-era begins at Rugby Park on Wednesday, a ground at which Rangers have lost six of 12 visits since December 2017, so they certainly cannot take Kilmarnock lightly, and the new caretaker boss’ first big decision should be to drop a stalwart of the starting lineup.

The Rangers star Ferguson must drop

Jack Butland joined Rangers in June 2023, simply looking to reinvigorate his career, having played just 17 matches across the previous three seasons, spending the second half of the previous campaign bench warming at Manchester United.

Fair to say he made an instant impression in Glasgow, pulling off a string of outstanding saves, instantaneously known colloquially as ‘Super Jack Butland’.

That is because, Christopher Jack of the Rangers Review believeds he ‘has been a huge figure between the sticks’, asserting that Butland is ‘the best keeper in Scotland by some distance’, while Stephen Halliday of the Times simply labelled his performances as ‘outstanding’.

Meantime, Ewan Murray of the Guardian notes the Englishman has been a ‘virtually an ever-present since joining’, while Archie Rhind-Tutt of ESPN & TNT Sports thought his ‘excellent form’ was going to earn him an England recall, having not featured for the Three Lions since September 2018, although this ultimately did not come to pass.

However, in more recent times, as Joshua Barrie of the Rangers Review puts it, ‘Butland’s form has suffered’.

Speaking on Sky Sports, new Rangers assistant manager Neil McCann described his performance at Motherwell in December as “unconvincing”, the goalkeeper’s ‘blushes spared’ by the fact the Steelmen had a late winner disallowed by VAR for rather soft foul by Tony Watt.

Butland has made a few high-profile mistakes, gifting Celtic the Scottish Cup back in May with former Rangers striker Ally McCoist describing his own goal at Old Trafford in January as a “howler”, leading to journalist Luke Hatfield labelling him ‘error-prone’.

This led to him being heavily criticised by supporters, so let’s analyse how Butland’s numbers compare this season to last.

As the table outlines, Butland’s statistics are unanimously worse this season than last, with his post-shot xG – goals allowed figure having nosedived from almost +2 to around -1.5, this the biggest indicator of his drop-off in form.

Post-shot expected goals (PSxG) is a metric used to determine how likely a goalkeeper is to save a shot.

So, should new manager Ferguson unleash Butland’s deputy at Rugby Park on Wednesday night?

Jack Butland’s back-up ready and waiting at Rangers

Back in early January Butland missed the New Year’s Old Firm due to internal bleeding, a match in which Rangers demolished fierce rivals Celtic 3-0, putting in, by far, their best performance under Clement.

Deputising for Butland that day was Liam Kelly, who was described as ‘reliable’ and ‘assured with the ball at his feet’, while Laura Brannan of the Scottish Football Show believes the 29-year-old to be a ‘fantastic’ goalkeeper.

As well as a clean sheet in the Glasgow derby, Kelly also enjoyed shutouts against Dundee and Aberdeen leading to, as noted by Aasif Rahman of Football Insider, supporters questioning why Clement has restored Butland after the understudy had ‘proven himself’ during the Englishman’s absence.

Since arriving from Motherwell in the summer, Kelly has made seven appearances in a Rangers jersey, keeping three clean sheet and conceding just six goals, making nine saves, which translates to a save percentage of 69.2%, higher than Butland’s aforementioned season figure of 63%.

Kelly himself stated “I’ve done alright”, adding he is “looking to go under the radar” by doing “whatever I need to do when called upon.”

Thus, with little left to play for in the Premiership, Ferguson should certainly give his backup goalkeeper opportunities to prove what he can do.