Sam Lammers and his lack of goals: Rangers striker explains just why that is

It is inescapable that Sam Lammers will have to improve massively on recent goal returns if he is to cut it as a central striker at Rangers.

Sam Lammers has signed a three-year deal after joining from Atalanta.

The 26-year-old Dutchman, acquired in a £3million deal from Atalanta earlier this month, has rarely played other than through the middle across his more than 200 senior appearances since breaking through at PSV Eindhoven seven years ago. Yet the frontman – who broke bread with Michael Beale while with loan club Sampodria in March, so keen was the Ibrox manager to bring him on board – has netted only 61 times in that period. The 19 goals he bagged when on loan with Heerenveen from PSV five seasons ago account for almost a third of these.

Lammers’ figures since then make for ghastly reading, frankly. In four years he has found the net only nine times, netting a mere twice in Serie A last season. One of these he scored when spending the first half of the campaign on loan to Empoli from Atalanta; the other the product of his temporary stint for subsequent six months of 2022-23 that landed him at a Sampdoria that finished bottom of the Italian top flight. This context leads the forward to petition that the nature of these moves provides mitigating circumstances for the lean times he endured in front of goal. Indeed, the very circumstances he has left behind in joining Rangers, a club that will be pitching for the leading status in their domain.

“As a striker, you want to score more goals than I did last season and have a better record,” Lammers said. “I think you can really have an opinion on that if you see the matches that I have played. A lot of matches last season were not easy. We played in the lower regions of Italy, not a lot of possession, a lot of hard work to keep the ball, long balls. I think if you see the real chances I got last season, there were not many. This is, of course, not only the fact that it is difficult for the club. I can also blame myself for this. This is a big factor. At a team like Rangers, you should be the better team almost every week and I should get more chances to score goals.”

Equally, Lammers considers that the application and adaptability he seeks to bring to his game means he can be judged as an all-rounder rather than simply on any predatory instincts, as he believes is recognised by Beale in his plan for him. “I have always been a real striker,” said the Dutchman. “I have always played as a striker. I am not a striker who stays in the box only, I like to get on the ball and have a connection with team-mates. When I drop down, the midfielder goes deep, for example. I think this fits well with what the trainer wants here. He likes players who can change positions and are not stuck in the same place. I think I can play in more positions. I like to be the striker but if I come down or play on the right or the left, it is also fine.”