If ever an individual season indicated the complexities of recruitment in football it is Sam Lammers’ 2023/24 campaign.

The 27-year-old struggled badly at Rangers following a promising start in pre-season after joining from Atalanta, scoring just two goals by January - a rate of 0.1 per 90 across all competitions. In the second half of the season on loan at Utrecht in the Eredevise, a weaker team in a stronger league, Lammers scored 11 times - a rate of 0.54 per 90. Breaking a 40-year-old record by scoring in seven successive league matches in the Netherlands and transforming himself into a transfer target for multiple sides across the league.

The forward impressed internally at Rangers during pre-season and after scoring against Hoffenheim and Newcastle appeared set to make up for lost time in his career. Lammers was regarded as a significant talent by PSV who he joined at the age of 12 before leaving to join Europa League winners Atalanta in a deal worth up to €11million aged 23. A loan spell with Heerenveen in the 2018/19 season, where he scored 16 goals, appeared to open the door to a starting spot in Eindhoven but a serious injury at the start of the following campaign curtailed momentum. Atalanta, notorious for their talent development in Europe, never saw the best of Lammers who spent time on loan at Eintracht Frankfurt as they won the Europa League over Rangers in 2022, Empoli and Sampdoria.

As the Rangers Review revealed yesterday, Rangers plan to sell Lammers this summer following post-season talks this week with interest from across the Eredevise, including Utrecht who are understandably part of that cohort. Sources insist there’s significant interest in Lammers from several clubs in the Eredivisie and Europe. There’s a hope that Rangers will now be able to make a profit, and at the very least make their money back, on a player who looked set to leave for a cut-price fee months ago. 

Those close to Lammers have always maintained that the correct environment would get the best out of a talent who had spent too many seasons without consistency. However, his goal record in the three years before the move to Glasgow was a sticking point for some Rangers supporters who felt justified after big misses in matches with Servette and, most notably, Celtic.

Lammers was the first player Michael Beale met in 2023 during a significant summer of change at Ibrox. Someone Beale had long been aware of stretching back to youth football, the 4-3-1-2 system Rangers moved towards at the end of the previous season was supposed to see Lammers occupy the No.10 slot - functioning as an extra striker in the penalty box while afforded the freedom to connect midfield and attack by utilising his back to goal qualities and clear technical ability. “Sam will give us great technical and tactical quality, being able to play in a variety of attacking positions as a number 10 or nine,” Beale said when the move was announced.

“I played more at No.10 at Rangers. I didn't actually play a single match there as a striker,” Lammers would later say. “Although I can also perform in other roles, I really feel like a No.9.

Speaking earlier Lammers said, predicting his goal glut: "I was coached as a youngster by Ruud van Nistelrooy and I once spoke to him about his tomato ketchup theory. So hopefully, the bottle is now open for me!"

READ MORE: Check all the Rangers transfer news & rumours before the transfer window

The ‘nine-and-a-half role’ is becoming more and more popular around world football as managers seek to get the best of both worlds with a player who can offer than an extra passing lane in midfield and bring the incision of a forward in the penalty box. The likes of Kai Havertz and Jude Bellingham have both played that role to great success in the past 10 months. Looking at the data Lammers was not taking more shots, or even on the end of significantly higher chances at Utrecht compared to Rangers. Instead, it appears as if the forward was uncomfortable being constantly involved in possession and joining the box, rather than starting in higher areas and using his link-up play at certain points in matches.

Speaking to the Rangers Review last season, his former teammate and current PSV Under-19 coach Vincent Heillman foresaw what few others could in relation to the ‘9.5’ role Lammers would struggle in at Rangers compared to the ‘9’ role he’d thrive in at Utrecht.

“Sam can score from nothing. Because he is such a good footballer," he said. "The issue has been that most coaches don’t use him like a real No.9. They use him like a 9.5 to play between or overload spaces because he is such a good footballer. Sam can do that but if you use him as a real No.9, he will score at least 15 goals and give you 10 assists every season.”

Lammers underperformed his xG in the league at Rangers scoring twice from 3.86xG. Add in European football and that number jumps to two goals from 5.46xG.

His xG per 90 has barely moved throughout the season, from 0.37 in the Scottish Premiership to 0.39 in the Eredivisie. However, Lammers’ xG/Shot, the average quality of effort, has risen from 0.09 to 0.13. Looking at his Utrecht shot map below the change in Lammers’ shot location is obvious. The forward has overperformed his xG in stark contrast to the first half of the season. This shot map does not include his goal in the European play-off match.

Lammers was receiving around half of the passes in the Netherlands per 90 (14.98) compared to his time in Scotland (28.14). Although still involved in build-up play the attacker was joining the play in midfield sporadically rather than joining the attack.

Confidence and environment also have a big bearing on the contrast Lammers demonstrated between clubs. The player spoke of the need to find a new home and settle after joining last summer but with Beale, the man who drove his signing, gone eight games into a league campaign with Ibrox a toxic place, Rangers proved a hard place to settle. Suddenly the very specific role Lammers had been signed to occupy was gone.

Lammers took a few games to get going at Utrecht but was backed by manager Ron Jans right away. After two assists in his first four games a late goal against Fortuna Sittard in a comfortable 4-0 win, which was a slightly fortuitous in its origin, set the tone.

The majority of Lammers’ strikes have derived from the forward starting higher up and occupying the box, rather than linking moves and joining the attack. Such as this instinctive right-footed strike against RKC Waalwijk to earn a 2-2 draw…

Or this header to continue a comeback against AZ Alkmaar…

And this opener in a win over Go Ahead Eagles…

There have also been a few more audacious strikes that speak to Lammers’ confidence in stark contrast to the man who missed two costly open goals at the start of the campaign, like these two goals against former side Herenveen. The first of which was a left-footed curling effort after effective pressing high up the pitch…

And the second a counterattacking goal that demonstrates the one-v-one threat Lammers possesses when in wide areas given his two-footed ability...

Ironically, it has taken Lammers all of five years to recover the form demonstrated on loan at Heerenveen as a young striker. Since then injury, the wrong moves and not enough time in his favoured position have harmed the 27-year-old.

His technical and tactical abilities made the prospect of utilising him in a 9.5 role appealing. It is in the traditional role and a run at No.9 that’s led to a renaissance in Lammers’ career, however.