Glasgow Rangers head coach Russell Martin received a lot of criticism in the opening month of the 2025/26 campaign after a poor start to the season on his side.
The Light Blues weren’t able to compete in the Champions League stage, having yet to win the match in the Scottish Premiership, making it their fourth draw in a clash with Celtic last weekend.
Martin’s team has already admitted 17 goals in all competitions this season, which is simply not enough, but central defender John Suterle has performed well for the most part.
Why John Souttal is still a valuable player for Rangers
Despite all the new signatures brought by the club this summer, Scotland International remains an integral member of the team, due to his quality and experience.
The 28-year-old centre-back may not be the smoothest operator with the ball at his feet, but his dominant play is worthy of both physically and old school backs to the team.
John Suterle (Premiership) | 24/25 | 25/26 |
|---|---|---|
exterior | twenty four | 4 |
Sofa Score Review | 7.28 | 7.25 |
Success rate for ground dueling | 74% | 60% |
Success rate for air duel | 66% | 55% |
Ball recovery for each game | 2.9 | 5.5 |
Clearances for each game | 6.1 | 3.8 |
The error led to the goal | 0 | 0 |
Statistics via Sofascore | ||
As you can see in the table above, Souttar has not committed a single error that has directly led to his goal since the start of last season, earning most of his duels on the ground and in the air.
This is the impressive nature of his defensive work, and the former Hearts man appears to be even more valuable than Jack Butland, who was valued at £15 million at the club last year.
Why Souttar is more valuable to rangers than Butland
Last February, Football Insider reported that the Scottish giants valued the former England International at a price of up to £15 million from the summer window.
That came when Buttland was maintaining an eye-catching 18 clean sheets with 38 appearances in the 2023/24 campaign premiership.
Unfortunately, his form has fallen since the club cherished him for £15 million. In the 2024/25 season, the British accepted a goal of 2.2 than expected based on XG and FOTMOB, making four errors that led to opposition shots or goals per Prime Minister’s sofa score.
As you can see in the above post, Butland was very fortunate that he didn’t have a fifth error under his belt for the season as the referee gave him a very soft foul against Motherwell and let him down.
Interim head coach Barry Ferguson dropped him sideways to take Liam Kelly as number one at the end of the campaign, but Martin has regained his position as number one this season.
Butland has given goals of 0.71 than expected in four league matches per Fotmob this season, and it remains to be seen whether he will be able to regain the form he once valued at £15 million.
At this moment, Souttar is worth more than he for his impressive performance compared to the error-prone goalkeeper, but the centre-back is worth more (£3.4 million) than Butland (£1.3 million) at Transfalt.
Given that the Rangers did not sign a new goalkeeper to compete with the former Stoke star, Martin hopes that Butland can return to his best and prove he is still an invaluable asset at his disposal for the Scottish giants.
