Grim night as 3s and 4s dominate but one man gets 8 - Hearts player ratings against Rangers

We give the Hearts players a mark out of ten and rate their performance during the match against Rangers at Tynecastle.

Zander Clark: The one Hearts player who can be proud of his night’s work. Made a string of excellent saves to keep the score down and did his Scotland call-up chances no harm at all. 8

Toby Sibbick: Has been lauded for his tremendous form of late but was given an uncomfortable evening by Rangers’ array of attacking riches. 4

Kye Rowles: Found it hard to deal with an impressive Alfredo Morelos and, like his fellow defenders, was given the runaround. 4

Garang Kuol was given his first Hearts start but enduring a torrid evening in the unfamiliar surrounding of central midfield and was fortunate to escape a yellow card from referee John Beaton.

Stephen Kingsley: Some sloppy distribution from the usually dependable centre-back and had a difficult evening all round. 4

James Hill: Moved from his usual posting as a centre-half to right-back, the young Bournemouth loanee had a torrid time. Was regularly beaten by Ryan Kent, Fashion Sakala and Borna Barisic and was booked for a cynical tug. Replaced at half time by Alan Forrest. 3

Barrie McKay: Was largely anonymous in the first half in an unusual central midfield role but in his one big moment, fired straight at Allan McGregor when through on goal. Showed the occasional flash in the second half once restored to his more accustomed role further up the pitch but by that time the damage was well and truly done. 4

Robert Snodgrass: Given no protection whatsoever, he was quickly swamped by the Rangers midfielders. His late yellow card summed up his evening. 4

Garang Kuol: This was the 18-year-old forward’s first start for Hearts and it surprised almost everyone that he was stationed in central midfield. Five minutes in and you could tell it was the wrong choice. He was lucky not to be carded for a poor challenge on Barisic and was completely dominated by Rangers’ more experienced players. A fish out of water but it’s easy to have sympathy with the teenager given he asked to play a role that does not suit his skillset. Had one break forward that almost led to an equaliser but unsurprisingly subbed at the break. 3

Alex Cochrane: One of Hearts’ better players, he was asked to plug the midfield midway through the first half when manager Robbie Neilson realised his tactics had backfired. Moved to left-back in the second half but was firefighting for most of it. 5

Lawrence Shankland: One of Scotland’s in-form strikers but this was a night for forget. Lobbed a presentable chance over the bar midway through the second half and got very little change out of the Rangers defence. 4

Josh Ginnelly: The speedy forward was starved of service and as result was a peripheral figure for almost all of the 72 minutes he spent on the pitch before making way for Yutaro Oda. 4

Substitutes: Orestis Kiomourzoglou (3) was brought on at the break to improve midfield but failed to do so. Alan Forrest, however, injected a bit of life into Hearts’ forward play. Yutaro Oda (2) was the only other sub after 72 minutes and was ineffective.