Could Rangers' summer signings solve the issue that has set Celtic apart in recent seasons?

Rangers’ goal in the cinch Premiership campaign about to go under the starting gun is obvious.

Not so much those that will fire the bullets as they seek to wrest the title from Celtic. Or, to be more precise, such scoring contributors beyond the club’s bankers-for-banging-them-in that take the form of Alfredo Morelos and James Tavernier. If there was a single factor that could be said to have set Celtic apart from their bitterest rivals in last season’s championship, it was their array of scoring options middle to front outwith their central strikers.

Returns from those largely entrusted with the no.9 role at both clubs proved pretty similar. Between them, Rangers forwards Kemar Roofe, Fashion Sakala, Cedric Itten and Morelos netted 34 league goals. Their Celtic counterparts in Giorgos Giakoumakis, Kyogo Furuhashi, Daizen Maeda and Albian Ajeti indeed were shy of this figure with a 33-goal total.

It is once the numbers from midfielders and wide men are aggregated that the two teams notably diverge. Celtic’s personnel deployed in those areas chipped in with 44 goals in 2021-22. Rangers tally on this front was a mere 31 goals. And while the wingers for Ange Postecoglou’s side, in Jota and Liel Abada, both broke double figures, none in berths outside of the forward line reached that threshold for Rangers. For comparison, Ryan Kent claimed only two Premiership goals.

This has been a common theme for Rangers in recent years. That said, in their capture of the title while remaining unbeaten across 2020-21, the English wide man did plunder 10 league goals - the only occasion he has made it to double figures for this measure across his four seasons at Ibrox. Beyond that, Scott Arfield in 2018-19, and Tavernier, that season and in the club’s title winning campaign, are the only non-strikers to achieve this feat for Rangers over the four most recent top flight campaigns. In contrast, Celtic have regularly had such scorers with Mohamed Elyounoussi (2020-21), James Forrest (2019-20 and 2018-19) and Ryan Christie (2019-20).

A key objective for Giovanni van Bronckhorst must be bridging this gap. He has sought to do so, in part, with the arrivals of Tom Lawrence and Rabbi Matondo. When the Dutchman has all of his revamped squad fit and available, it seems likely that - in a 4-2-3-1 formation - the former Derby County captain Lawrence would occupy the no.8 role, behind Morelos and flanked by Matondo and Kent. In that shape, John Lundstrum and Glen Kamara - two players that don’t often trouble the opponents’ net - would occupy the sitter roles.

Encouragingly for Rangers, Lawrence - sometimes utilised as a second striker at his previous club - possesses a potency that allowed him to bag 21 league goals over the past three seasons. A period during which his most regular berth was wide on the left. Equally, fellow Welsh international Matondo demonstrated he knew his way to goal in his loan season with Cercle Brugge last season, netting nine times from only 26 outings.

If both players show up in similar fashion, it could lessen the reliance on Morelos. Fellow new arrival Antonio Colak, as he deputises for the club’s currently injured first choice striker, cannot be expected to conjure up match-winning moments with the regularity of the Colombian predator. In the early weeks of the season then, Lawrence, Matondo and Kent must pitch in. On all available evidence, it can be taken as read that such as Matt O’Riley, Reo Hatate, David Turnbull, Jota, Maeda and Abada will do so to spread Celtic’s scoring burden beyond Furuhashi and Giakoumakis. Once again, on such yields could the title be won and lost.

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