Glasgow Rangers battled back hard in a crucial clash in the race for the Scottish Premiership title with a 3-3 draw against their fierce rivals at Ibrox on Sunday.
Philippe Clement's side found themselves 2-0 down at half-time, thanks to goals from Daizen Maeda and Matt O'Riley, but brought it back during the second-half through James Tavernier's penalty and a deflected strike from Abdallah Sima.
Adam Idah then put the away side in front almost instantly after Sima's goal but a stoppage-time wonder strike from Rabbi Matondo secured a point for Rangers.
The Gers did not step up to make the most of the big occasion and will now be chasing Celtic for the rest of the 2023/24 campaign to win the title.
There were a number of underwhelming performances across the park for Rangers at Ibrox. One star, however, who must now be boldly ditched ahead of the clash with Dundee on Wednesday night is captain James Tavernier, which would be a bold call by the manager.
James Tavernier's performance against Celtic
The Light Blues skipper got off to the worst possible start and set the tone for the rest of his teammates with a telling mistake inside the opening 30 seconds.
He appeared to have plenty of time to collect and clear the ball, whether that was back to Jack Butland or out of play for a throw-in, but took far too long and allowed Maeda to nip in and make the block that deflected the ball into the back of the net to give the away side the lead.
Tavernier was then caught sleeping on the ball, by Maeda again, in the build-up to the chance that Celtic won a corner from, which led to the handball from Connor Goldson for the penalty from O'Riley.
Duels won
5/11
Possession lost
28x
Crosses
6
Pass accuracy
67%
Key passes
2
Big chances created
0
As you can see in the table above, the experienced defender was also incredibly wasteful in possession as he gave possession back to Celtic a staggering 28 times without creating a single 'big chance' for his teammates.
RangersReview journalist Jonny McFarlane handed him a match rating of 5/10 for his performance and described the first-half display from the Englishman as 'shocking', which seems fair given his poor work in and out of possession from open play.
The captain, of course, did score from the spot himself, with a terrific strike into the top corner, but that did not make up for the rest of his showing.
Clement must make a big call and boldly drop Tavernier to the bench to show that no player can escape criticism or get away with, as McFarlane put it, shocking performances.
Dujon Sterling, who won ten of his 12 ground duels at Ibrox, could move over to his more natural position at right-back to replace the skipper, which would then open up space for Borna Barisic, or Ridvan Yilmaz if he is available, to slot in on the left.
It would be an eye-catching decision from the manager, given that the English defender has started all 31 league matches this term, but it could set the standard and strike fear into other regular starters to ensure that they do not allow their standards to slip in the title run-in, as Tavernier did in his Old Firm shocker.
