Rangers are reportedly close to signing Standard Liege midfielder Nicolas Raskin as Michael Beale looks to continue improving his squad.
Todd Cantwell was confirmed as Rangers' first signing of the January transfer window in the past few days, and along with Swansea City's Morgan Whittaker, Raskin is another name strongly linked with a move to Beale's side. According to a report in France, the Belgian midfielder has completed a medical in London ahead of a proposed move to the Light Blues.
Raskin has recently fallen out of favour at Standard Liege after a fallout with manager Ronny Deila, and with the 21-year-old only having six months left on his contract, a departure looked set in stone. Despite not playing much recently, the midfielder impressed during the first half of the season, grabbing one goal and four assists in 17 league games.
So, if Rangers were to sign Raskin this month, how could the 21-year-old perform at the Ibrox? We simulated the rest of the season to try and find out.
We 'signed' Nicolas Raskin for Rangers as a January transfer
To set up this simulation, we used the Football Manager 2023 editor to arrange for the Belgian midfielder to make the move to Glasgow this month, using FM23 to run the simulation. We then simulated the remainder of the 2022/23 season to see what sort of impact the Raskin could have.
Raskin was thrown straight into the Rangers starting XI on his arrival, starting ahead of Ryan Jack and John Lundstram regularly. In his first season under Beale, the Belgian midfielder made 17 appearances in all competitions, with 16 of them starts.
Despite playing regularly, his influence on the side was nothing to shout about, with the 21-year-old being subbed in 12 of his 16 starts. In those games, Raskin managed two assists from the defensive midfielder role, averaging a rating of 6.95 per game.
Both his assists and nearly all of his appearances came in the Scottish Premiership, with one start coming in the Scottish Cup. His pass completion was a respectable 87% whilst his tackle success was 77%, the former the fourth-best in the squad.
Jack, Glen Kamara and Connor Goldson averaged a higher pass percentage than Raskin, with Kamara ending the season as the Gers' best midfielder, topping the charts in appearances, goals, assists and player of the match awards. Ianis Hagi and Jack were the only players to register a lower average rating than Raskin, whilst fellow January signing Todd Cantwell averaged the best rating out of the Light Blues midfielders (7.12).
At the end of the 2022/23 season, Football Manager 2023 put together an overall best Rangers XI, based on performances, statistics and other metrics. This is what it looked like:
Full Rangers best XI: (4-2-3-1): McGregor; Tavernier, Goldson, Davies, Yilmaz; Kamara, Jack; Sakala, Tillman, Kent; Morelos.
Raskin didn't make Beale's best XI from the 2022/23 season, with both Jack and Kamara outperforming the midfielder to get a spot in the double-pivot. Lundstram also missed out, whilst Alfredo Morelos started over Antonio Colak in attack, and Ridvan Yilmaz beat Brona Barisic to the left-back spot.
Rangers' results with Raskin
Over the remainder of the season, Rangers managed to close the gap between themselves and Celtic in first, but not enough as the Hoops managed to win the Scottish Premiership. Celtic went through a rough patch that saw them draw four games in a row in February, but the Gers also endured a few defeats of their own, with Celtic beating Beale's side to the title by seven points.
Rangers managed to end the season as the league's top scorers, scoring 84 goals as both Morelos and Colak ended the season in fine form, with the duo both scoring 20+ goals each in the simulation. But, two losses to Celtic as well as defeats against Livingston and Ross County saw the Gers fall short of the title.
Both league meetings after Raskin's arrival ended in 2-0 wins to Celtic, and the two also met in both cup competitions, taking their total meetings throughout the 2022/23 season to six. The Old Firm rivals were drawn against each other in the fifth round of the Scottish Cup where the Hoops won 2-0, and the Viaplay Cup Final also ended in victory for Celtic, with Jota scoring the only goal in a 1-0 win.
Overall, FM23 predicts that Raskin could prove a good squad player for Beale's side, but his influence wasn't season-changing, with the Light Blues failing to win any silverware during the simulation. The Belgian midfielder failed to make the Gers' best XI despite becoming a regular starter, but only 21 years old, there's plenty of room and time for Raskin to improve in season's ahead.
Do you think Raskin would be a good fit at Rangers? Let us know below!
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