RANGERS reclaimed top spot in the Scottish Premiership table, for the time being at least, with as routine a victory as you’re likely to see against Ross County yesterday.

Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s men ran out convincing 4-0 winners with Antonio Colak netting a double alongside strikes from John Lundstram and Steven Davis.

As ever, we’ve analysed the all important data from StatsBomb to bring you the story of the game.

Match Stats

Rangers Review:

As the stats show, this was a comprehensive win for Rangers. The cumulative xG (expected goals) shows Rangers slightly overperformed while defensively, to restrict the Staggies to just 0.44 shows you Malky Mackay’s men rarely troubled throughout the course of the game. Rangers, as expected, dominated possession, shots and the pass count with 422 more passes made. This tells you just how one-sided the contest was.

Race Chart & Shot Maps

Rangers Review:

To give you an idea of just how much Rangers dominated this game. The Race Chart highlights if the match was played 100 times, County would have a one per cent chance of coming out on top.

Rangers Review:

The Shot Map also makes for pleasant reading. To net four goals from an xG of 3.44 will please van Bronckhorst and the coaching staff although with 32 attempts on goal, perhaps the scoreline could’ve been more emphatic.

Colak certainly thought so. Speaking to Rangers TV after the game, the Croatian said: “I think, offensive-wise, we created a lot of chances, scored a lot of goals and even today we could’ve had an even higher result.”

If we take a closer look at the goals, the opener from Lundstram was an unfortunate one as far as Ross County were concerned with the Scouser’s shot aided by a deflection off Ben Purrington.

Rangers Review:

However, the build-up was impressive as we can see below, with 10 passes all in with the move starting off in the Rangers penalty area.

Rangers Review:

Goal number two was a finish of sublime quality from Colak. Again, as we witnessed against PSV at Ibrox, he struck the ball first time after being laid off by Scott Wright. The ball almost looped into the far corner away from the despairing Ross Laidlaw in the County goal. The xG before the ball was struck was 0.11 which tells you it was a difficult chance to convert, however, this rises to 0.48 when the former Malmo man connects which outlines the quality of the shot.

Rangers Review:

Colak added his second and Rangers’ third on the 58th-minute mark. Again, the strike is impressive after being set up by Ryan Kent. As soon as he strikes the ball, the xG rises from 0.48 to 0.91 which tells you it was an almost certain goal as soon as it left his boot.

Rangers Review:

The fourth goal was another excellent move from Rangers with Steven Davis providing a finish Colak would’ve been proud of. He fired home first time from a James Tavernier delivery with the post-shot xG registering 0.92 from an initial 0.21.

Rangers Review:

The move itself was a delight to watch. Davis starts off deep in his own half before the ball is moved quickly between Jon McLaughlin, Connor Goldson and Tavernier. Davis bursts a gut to get himself into the box and he’s repaid when he meets the ball flush to round off a satisfying afternoon in the Ibrox sunshine.

Rangers Review:

Passing Network

Unlike last week at Easter Road, Rangers looked threatening throughout the side and the Passing Network highlights this.

Rangers Review:

In the first half, we can see how high the team were playing with everyone in a blue jersey contributing heavily. The second half shows a slightly more stretched formation but, again, one which is totally dominant.

In contrast, if we take a glance at the Ross County Passing Network, it tells you just how ineffectual they were. The Staggies struggled to get out of their own half and offered next to nothing in terms of a goal threat.

Rangers Review:

All in all, you couldn’t have asked for much more in terms of the result and complete Rangers performance and it bodes well for next week’s trip to Parkhead where the challenge will be far tougher.