SCOTT WRIGHT agreed a pre-contract move to Rangers earlier this week but the Aberdeen forward could find himself pitching up at Ibrox before the end of the month, with Steven Gerrard reportedly keen to push through a January move for the 23-year-old’s services.
Wright isn’t the first up-and-coming attacker to find himself tempted by a move to Govan in recent years and given the lack of game time the likes of Jordan Jones and Jake Hastie have received since signing on the dotted line in Glasgow, there are some questions over how much Wright can actually expect to play – and what it is exactly he’ll bring to this Rangers side.
Why have Rangers made their move?
Having previously been deployed as a winger, Wright was perhaps the main beneficiary to a change in Derek McInnes’ formation this term. The Dons academy graduate has been shifted further infield in a more central role – not entirely dissimilar to the two inside 10s that Gerrard tends to use – and has flourished as a result. The defences he'll be facing for Rangers will be more tightly packed than those at Aberdeen but much of Wright's best work this season has occurred in small spaces just in front of the opponent's backline.
Tactically, then, it shouldn’t take Wright too long to settle into Gerrard’s system as he has already shown that he has the necessary qualities to excel in the role.
There is clearly untapped potential there for the coaching staff at Ibrox to work with and it’s worth pointing out that while Wright is 23, his age isn’t necessarily a reflection of his progress in the senior game.
He has had his fair share of injuries – including cruciate ligament damage that ruled him out for almost all of last season – meaning he hasn’t played as many minutes as some of his contemporaries. Wright might well be 23 but for the purposes of his development, it could be more useful to consider him a year or two younger than he actually is.
How does Wright compare to previous signings?
Jones and Hastie are the obvious go-to comparisons here but it should be said that this isn’t exactly a perfect process. The pair both played as out-and-out wingers, asked to carry out different tasks on the pitch, but a dig into the numbers in their final campaigns before moving to Ibrox provides some insight as to what Rangers will be getting when Wright arrives.
Unsurprisingly, Jones (9.84) and Hastie (9.59) have the edge compared to Wright (5.05) in terms of the number of dribbles attempted per game and their success rate. Hastie’s goalscoring return of 0.51 per game in his final season at Motherwell was outstanding, yet clearly unsustainable: his expected goals (xG) per game sat at around 0.32, suggesting that Hastie was massively overperforming during this period. It’s worth mentioning too that the 21-year-old has never achieved a run of form like it before or since.
Jones’ acquisition made a lot more sense in this regard. His xG and goals per game married up, suggesting his displays were representative, but the Northern Irishman was let down by his creativity. He failed to register a single league assist during his final campaign at Rugby Park and his underlying stats, such as expected assists (xA), were in line with someone like Hastie who doesn’t tend to create lots of chances. This stat, xA, works similarly to xG - it tells us about the quantity and quality of chances created, regardless of whether or not they actually went in.
This is where Wright stands out. A look as his assist rate (0.08) reveals nothing to write home about but his xA (0.13) is virtually double that of Hastie (0.07) or Jones (0.07). What this means is that Wright has been creating chances at a better rate than his assist tally would suggest and that he has simply been let down by his team-mates’ profligacy.
He also averages about three times as many key passes – a pass that leads directly to a shot – than Jones or Hastie did before they moved to Rangers, and it looks as though this is what has convinced Gerrard to make his move. Wright is likely to add more goals to his game playing in a dominant side like Rangers (which is a nice bonus) but his main task will likely be to create chances for others. And again, for a possession-heavy team like Rangers who tend to play in their opponent's half, we can expect Wright's key passes and xA per game to significantly improve.
Like Hastie and Jones, Wright is far from the finished product and whether or not he kicks on under Gerrard’s tutelage will depend mostly on him. But there is little doubt that the raw ingredients are there for a fine player that can pull his weight in Glasgow’s south side.
Improvement is required if Wright is to seriously challenge the likes of Ryan Kent or Ianis Hagi for a starting berth but the creative talent is there. It is down to Gerrard and his coaching team to ensure that they bring it to the fore.
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