Rangers have announced the pre-contract signing of Dundee midfielder Lyall Cameron.
The 22-year-old will join up with Philippe Clement’s squad in the summer following the expiry of his current deal at Dens Park.
Nils Koppen, the club’s Technical Director, said: “I am delighted that we have agreed a deal for Lyall to join the club and to continue his career at Rangers come the summer.
"He is a talented young player, who has already gained great experience in the Scottish Premiership, and adding young, Scottish talent to our first-team squad is hugely important to all of us at the club.
“Lyall has a lot of potential and I look forward to seeing him continue to grow at Rangers in the coming years.”
Why have Rangers moved to sign the Scotland Under-21 cap? Here’s a closer look.
Scottish-based squad building…
As previously reported by the Rangers Review, the club are looking to add a talent from the Scottish top-flight every season to build a domestic core of their squad required for UEFA competition. That’s a detail Koppen outlined when discussing Cameron’s move to Ibrox which will be completed in the summer.
Connor Barron joined Rangers from Aberdeen for a tribunal fee last year and quickly established himself as a key member of Clement’s side.
While Cameron is yet to receive a call-up to the Scotland national team he has been a regular in the top-flight since Dundee were promoted two seasons ago. That core experience of the Scottish Premiership should help the young player settle at Ibrox, as was the case with Barron.
The midfielder is capable of playing across a variety of roles and is viewed as an individual with the potential to improve significantly.
As shown by the below defensive intensity map, Cameron is a player who usually operates on the right of central midfield. Being a right-footed player, Cameron is more likely to pass his way through a defence than chop onto his right foot from the left and dribble with the ball.
Lyall Cameron's defensive Intensity map
Creative passing numbers…
What do the stats say about Cameron? Outside of the Old Firm, the midfielder has some of the top statistics for creative passing of central midfielders in the league, despite the fact that Dundee sit in the lower half of the league.
Cameron has the third-highest xG-assisted per 90 numbers for central midfielders outside Celtic and Rangers, with his 0.15 per 90 just behind Graeme Carey’s 0.18 and Lennon Miller’s 0.20. However, discluding set-pieces Cameron sits top of the outlined xG-assisted chart with 0.12. By the same metrics, Cameron ranks third for key passes and first for open-play final-third passes. While required to move up and down in Dundee’s system, Cameron has been a central cog of their attacking play.
Rangers will hope that with better quality around him, those numbers should improve. What Cameron demonstrates on the eye is a tendency to disguise passes, a favour for ball retention and clear game intelligence. Cameron is a proactive midfielder who plays with his head up, as demonstrated in the below example. The fact he’s a regular set-piece taker tells of a consistent final ball.
While more threatening with his passing than ball-carrying, Cameron’s ability to make up significant ground in transition and retain composure is a helpful tool.
The below gif, taken from a goal created against St Mirren earlier in the season, provides a good example of the new signing's all-round game. Keeping up with a lung-busting run through the park Cameron feints to shoot after receiving the ball from Scott Tiffoney, instead reversing the ball into the path of goalscorer Kiyad Larcheke.
A box-to-box goal threat…
Cameron has already matched his goal tally from last season in the Scottish Premiership with five strikes up until this point.
Lyall Cameron's shot map
The midfielder has demonstrated an ability to make late runs into the box and has overperformed his xG in the past two seasons - with five goals from 3.87xG in 2023/24 and five from 2.21xG in the current campaign.
What stands, like his passing, is a tendency to disguise shots and often opt for placement over power. Similarly, Cameron is a midfielder who has a knack for joining the action in the box after helping his side progress there, rather than simply holding back and seeing his job as complete.
This goal against St Johnstone in early January offers a rounded view of the youngster’s game. Despite starting well behind his direct marker, Drey Wright, as a Dundee transition starts, the midfielder’s speed over short distances is clear to steal a march and ‘crash the box’.
This is a trait that, arguably, the current make-up of Rangers’ central midfield lacks. Clement is a manager who wants to attack quickly and directly and those traits will likely suit Cameron’s rangey running and instinct to attack late into the penalty area.
The below goal against Kilmarnock from this season provides a good example of the midfielder’s game intelligence and goalthreat. Acknowledging the need to sometimes hang back and wait for the ball to reach him rather than simply making up proclivity to the goal, plenty of Cameron’s strikes in the past two seasons come from assuming similarly intelligent positions in the final third.
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