Using Data to Find Rangers a Goalkeeper in a Lesser Known League

Allan McGregor is considered a grandfather and a pertinent figure of the modern-day Rangers. After a hiatus, amidst financial difficulty, McGregor returned to the club that initially introduced him to senior football in 2001. A myriad of memorable moments from day one and a multitude of simply incredible saves yet every story comes to an end; and often it is not a satisfying conclusion.

 

The case of Allan McGregor is no different as he has seemingly been phased out after deteriorating performance levels and has been usurped by de facto replacement, Jon McLaughlin, who has since incurred a rocky start at the helm of the Ibroxians’ defence which poses questions over his long-term tenability of the position. 

 

Therefore, despite a youthful Robby McCrorie waiting in the wings, Rangers need to replace their deficient and ever-ageing goalkeeper department. However, there is an underlying, irrefutable caveat to this. The lack of concurrent funds available to the 55-time champions. Thus, when I conducted this search, the first filter I imposed was a maximal estimated transfer value of no greater than €5,000,000. Therefore, a plethora of leagues would be rendered futile in this search. Hence, I only ran the numbers on the below leagues (with a prerequisite of 1230 minutes played in concurrent/ most recent season): 

EFL Championship 

League One 

Bundesliga 2 

Ligue 2 

Serie B 

Austrian Bundesliga 

Eerste Divisie 

LaLiga2 

Belgium 2. Division 

Serbian SuperLiga 

Turkey SuperLig 

Swiss Super League 

Czech First League 

Eliteserien 

Liga Portugal 2 

Ukrainian Premier League 

Denmark SuperLiga 

Croatian Football League 

Greek Super League 

Israeli Premier League 

Allsvenskan 

J League 

K League 

A-League 

Argentina Liga Professional 

Brazil Serie A 

Canadian Premier League 

Veikaussaliga 

Indian Super League

Liga MX 

Northern Ireland Premiership 

Ekstraklasa 

ROI Premier Division 

MLS 

Uruguay: Primera Division 

 

Moreover, it is of great significance that this hypothetical acquisition is proficient in a number of facets of goalkeeping; apropos to shot-stopping and distribution capabilities. Consequently, I opted for the following statistics and coinciding metrical weights; 

Prevented Goals Per 90: 35% 

Save rate , %: 27.5% 

Accurate Passes, %: 20% 

Accurate Long Passes, % 17.5% 

 

Below, in its entirety, is each and every eligible players (30 in total) overall weighted score with a maximal score being one. The top 5 recommendations for Rangers on the basis of this dataset are: 

1: Philipp Köhn of Red Bull Salzburg 

2: Milan Borjan of Crvena Zvezda

3: Jindřich Staněk of Viktoria Plzen 

4: Aarón Escandell Banacloche of Cartagena

5: Lawrence Thomas of Western Sydney Wanderers

 

 

 

 

By: Max Nicholls / @maxnicholls14

Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Bryn Lennon / Getty Images