Just how important is Nico Raskin to Rangers – Ibrox Noise investigates | OneFootball

With the fight between Russell Martin and Nicolas Raskin now engulfing the Rangers picture, Ibrox Noise wanted to remove ourselves from the emotional and get with the factual. Nico Raskin and his importance is prime.

Just how big a miss IS Nico Raskin?

Well let’s find out just how good or bad Rangers have been since 2023 when he has and hasn’t played.

Base level, and this is a shocker – Nico Raskin has only made 68 SPL appearances since he joined the club. That’s one and a half seasons in almost three years. Not a great record.

But what about his influence?

Well, we can confirm that when Raskin hasn’t played, Rangers have lost three of 29 SPL matches. Since 2023.

When he’s played? One defeat in 15 split matches, but regular season? 53 matches – 12 losses. So 13 losses in 68 matches.

And yes, this is all managers including Martin.

So 10% loss ratio when he doesn’t play, 19% loss rate when he does. Rangers are double as likely to lose when Raskin plays compared with when he doesn’t.

Europe?

Rangers have never lost a Europa League match he didn’t play in, 4. 6 losses in the 18 he played in.

European qualifiers? In the UCL, it’s 50% – one loss in the two matches he didn’t play in. 4 losses in the 10 matches he did play in. 40%.

In the grand scheme of things, given Raskin’s job is primarily a defensive midfielder to cover the rearguard, conceded goals and losses are part of his responsibility. He’s not about scoring and winning per se, he’s about protecting the defence.

And in that sense, Rangers actually have better results without him than with him. When he doesn’t play league wise, Rangers lose one in ten. When he does play, it’s two in ten.

Is this conclusive? Not exactly. There’s lies, damn lies and statistics. But Nico Raskin is hardly the talismanic Barry Ferguson figure some fans are portraying him as.

But we will admit he is a damn sight better than the hapless Joe Rothwell.

As an aside, under Russell Martin? Rangers haven’t lost when Raskin hasn’t played. When he has played, in all competitions, including as sub, we’ve lost three matches of 9.

Make of that what you will, we’re just the messenger. Nico Raskin and his importance highlighted.