While some Rangers fans may have wanted him to sit out of his international duties, they will surely be interested to see how Ryan Jack fared on his outing with Scotland. The midfielder was the only Rangers players to be selected for Steve Clarke’s squad. It is a testament to his recent form that he played a full 90 minutes in his nation’s match against Cyprus this week.
But while Scotland only had 42% of the possession they managed to beat their opponents 2-1. How did Jack influence this game? These are all the statistics behind Jack’s outing with Scotland.
TIF Tactics – How did Jack contribute to Scotland’s win?
Jack had next to zero influence on Scotland’s attack during the game, failing to score, assist, complete a dribble or take a shot. He only attempted two offensive duels, both of which he came out unsuccessful. However, with Scotland failing to have a firm grasp of possession his ability to make contributions on the ball was always going to be limited.
Defensively Jack was much more impactful. This makes sense considering he was playing in a more defensive midfield position. He won three out of his six defensive duels and won one of his two ariel duels. He completed seven recoveries, made one clearance and achieved one interception.
While these numbers are still impressive, they are nowhere near as high as what he has achieved with Rangers this season. On average per 90 minutes this season Jack completes 6.34 defensive duels with a 59.4% accuracy, makes 4.35 interceptions and 8.96 recoveries. The only statistic where Jack was higher than his Rangers average was clearances, where he only averages 0.84 per 90 minutes this season.
Jack also made a considerably lower number of passes for Scotland that he normally does for Rangers. For Rangers, he averages 74.16 passes per 90 minutes, 91% of which are accurate. In the Scotland game, he attempted 31 passes, only 87% of which were accurate. He also only attempted five passes into the final third compared to the 11.75 per 90 minutes the averages this season.
These statistics suggest that the low possession of Scotland limited Jack’s ability to influence the game like he normally does for Rangers. Both Jack and the Rangers fans will be looking forward to his return to Ibrox. There he will be able to play for Steven Gerrard and his high-flying Gers. It appears it is a system that compliments his playing style much more than Clarke’s.
(all data and stats from Wyscout.com, accurate at the time of writing)