He’s done it again. In the Glasgow Rangers game at FC Motherwell on Saturday (04/23/2022) the 62nd minute ran when James Tavernier placed the ball at the penalty spot. The rest was routine for someone like him. Short run-up, precise shot, goal. It was the decision, Rangers won 3-1.
Tavernier, 30, is a right-back, adept at tackles and courageous on the ball. But the fact that he’s being talked about so much at the moment is due to statistics that don’t quite fit with someone whose job profile also says something about defense.
Tavernier takes all penalties and he rarely misses, he also takes excellent free-kicks. In general, he often cheers, and he can also assist. Against Motherwell, Tavernier made his 340th competitive appearance for Rangers, scoring 80 goals and providing 106 assists since 2015. It’s a rate that some attackers will envy him.
“His numbers are scary”
Kenny Miller knows how to score goals, he was a striker for Rangers and also Scotland international. A few days ago, in an interview with the “BBC” reminded that “Tav”, as they call Tavernier in Scotland, was once a “unknown size” appeared. Tavernier was actually considered a great talent in his native England, and Newcastle United even poached him from the Leeds United academy. But he didn’t make a breakthrough.
So Newcastle loaned out Tavernier. He played in the fifth division and in the third, for clubs like FC Gateshead or the Milton Keynes Dons, and sometimes in the second tier Championship. He was only allowed to play twice in the Premier League. At some point it was enough for Tavernier, he switched to Rangers, who played in Scotland’s second division after the license was revoked. In his debut season, he scored 10 goals and provided 18 assists, often benefitting attacker Miller.
So it came as no surprise when Miller told the BBC how an unknown became a solid. How Tavernier soon became an integral part of the Rangers team, how he eventually achieved cult status because he was a goalscorer in the guise of a right-back. miller said: “His numbers are scary.”
Tavernier in the Europa League: Nobody scores more often
They will see it similarly at Borussia Dortmund. In the intermediate round of the Europa League, BVB was eliminated by Rangers, Tavernier scored in both games and three times in total. He was also successful in the round of 16 against Red Star Belgrade and in the quarterfinals against Sporting Braga.
In general, Tavernier and the Europa League: This season he scored six goals in ten games, nobody scored more often. Just Galeno from FC Porto and Karl Toko Ekambi from Olympique Lyon (six goals each) can keep up, but both have been eliminated from the competition with their clubs. Tavernier and Rangers are still there, they meet RB Leipzig in the semifinals on Thursday (April 28th, 2022).