With Viktor Claesson now without a club, would he be a better option on the wing than Scott Wright for Rangers?
The Swedish international recently had to leave his club Krasnodar. As a result, perhaps he could be of interest to Rangers as they look to chase down silverware, with the winger potentially acting as a new weapon for the Ibrox club until June when the new ruling ends.
We decided to compare him to Scott Wright, who he could arguably be fighting for a place with should Giovanni van Bronckhorst decide he needs some reinforcements, especially after the stick he received recently from Paddy Kenny.
With that in mind, let’s see how he would compare.
Viktor Claesson
This season, Claesson has four goals and two assists in 22 outings. Wright on the other hand, also has four goals but is yet to set up a teammate in his 24 games.
Across the span of his career, though, the Swede has proven himself to be a very reliable attacking player. Indeed, in 357 games, he has 101 goals and 77 – which means a goal or an assist pretty much every other game. To have maintained this other such a long time is quite impressive.
This season, Claesson also takes more shots per game on average than his counterpart, as well as having more key passes. On top of that, he manages 1.1 tackles per game, compared to Wright’s 0.6.
Scott Wright
Six years younger than Claesson, Wright has played just 132 senior games, with 18 assists and 18 goals in that time. This means he takes about 3.6 games for every direct goal contribution.
One area where Wright fares better is passing accuracy. Indeed, this season his rate is up at an impressive 81.1 per cent, while Claesson only is at 74.9 per cent.
When it comes to dribbling, he also is a marginally better dribbler than the Swede – managing 0.2 more per game.
TIF verdict
It’s pretty clear to see that, as the senior player, with 56 intentional caps, compared to the uncapped Wright, Claesson could be seen an instant upgrade in the Rangers team in the experience department. As well as this, his goalscoring and assisting rate is much better, and this is backed up by corresponding stats such as chance creation and shots taken.
Also, on the topic of his scoring rate, it’s actually the same as Alfredo Morelos who shares a 15% goal conversion rate with the Swede.
Will Rangers make it into the next round of the Europa League?
Yes
No
One thing that Wright has on his side is the fact that he is a younger player. But, as of late, he has fallen out of favour in Scotland, sitting on the bench for the last three league games – this may suggest the Gers want aren’t happy with his quality.
And, at 30 years of age, it’s not as if the Swede is at retirement age just yet. If the club were to make a move for the free agent, they’d almost certainly improve their options on the wing.
In other news: Tam McManus buzzes over ‘big’ and ‘brave’ GVB decision at Rangers