THE title success achieved by Steven Gerrard and his players this season was always going to be a big one, regardless of how the men from Ibrox actually went about getting over the finishing line. Given the trophy drought in Govan over the last ten years – and the position of dominance Celtic found themselves in post-2012 – it would have been understandable if this particular Premiership crown paled in comparison to other historic campaigns.
The emotional argument was always going to outweigh the logical one; sure, this is a title but it is also so much more. It’s the reward for supporters who have patiently stood by and supported their club as they’ve been dragged through the ringer. It’s a changing of the guard at the summit of the Scottish game; a titan on the rise as their rivals across the city have faltered. And perhaps most importantly of all, it sealed Rangers’ restoration as our nation’s top dog.
But away from the sentimentality of it all, even when we soberly examine the facts in the naked light of day and strip away all their context, we’re still left with one of – if not the – most brilliant Rangers league campaigns there has ever been.
Comparing teams from different eras is never easy, particularly when you dive back to the time of two points for a win, while the intransigent nature of the fixture schedule doesn’t exactly facilitate matters either. Some of the greatest teams to ever wear the famous light blue jerseys played in top-flight seasons just 30 games long; others took part in a 44-match slog.
To get around this, we need to look at how the class of ’21 fare against other great Rangers sides of the past by examining their average output over the course of 90 minutes. We can fiddle with league tables from before 1994 and award three points for a win, rather than the customary two – it’s not a perfect workaround, but it does level the statistical playing field to a point where a comparison is worthwhile.
What we see is that the current iteration of the Ibrox side are up there with some of the best attacking sides Rangers have ever produced. When we compare them to every side to have won a domestic treble or breached the 90-points barrier since 1994, we can see that the current crop are up there with the best ever seen in Glasgow’s south side.
Gerrard’s side haven’t quite matched the free-scoring achievements of Dick Advocaat’s team from 1999/2000, for example, who averaged more goals per game than any of the other great Rangers sides of the past with 2.67, but they aren’t too far off.
This term, Rangers score 2.39 goals per game – a superior rate than all their illustrious predecessors, bar three: Advocaat’s side from the turn of the century, Alex McLeish’s treble-winning team from 2002/03 (2.66) and the 1963/64 side led by Scot Symons (2.5).
When we examine the amount of goals conceded per game by each of these famous sides, none come close to holding a candle to the resolute defence that has been a hallmark of Gerrard’s side this season. They concede just 0.29 goals per game – that’s nearly twice as good as the next best defence, Graeme Souness' 1986/87 side that shipped 0.52 goals per game.
This is the area of the park where the class of ’21 can be considered truly exceptional and it could be some time before we see any team in Scotland finish a campaign posting such impressive numbers at the back. A strong defence has been the foundation on which Gerrard has built a team of champions – and leaves a credible argument that this title win is Rangers’ best-ever, purely in terms of results.
Obviously, there are still games left to be played between now and the end of the season but if Rangers can maintain their current form, they will break the 100-points barrier. No manager of the Ibrox club has ever accrued a triple-digits points tally over the course of a 38-game season.
Not only that, but when we examine the points per game (PPG) of each of these great Rangers sides of yesteryear, Gerrard’s team are once again comfortably leading the way, bringing home a PPG of 2.74 on average. McLeish’s treble winners in 2002/03 had a PPG of 2.55 (and are the closest challengers to the current crop) but most of the other great Rangers teams had a PPG of between 2.2 and 2.3.
There are only three words to some up this campaign like no other for Rangers: Simply The Best.
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