Similarities

I'm still in Naples so my ability to consume the game was limited. So I'm going off what I have seen and the help of trusted confidants to fill in the blanks.

In the starting eleven there were 2 changes as Nedeljkovic came in for Sterling and Nicolas Raskin started ahead of Dan Neil.

No issues with the first change, Nedeljkovic needs to play so we can see if he's any good and capable of staying fit. But the other, not so sure. I'm not exactly sold on Dan Neil yet, but he's the only player we have close to the mould of a deep lying midfield controller. Both Raskin and Devlin defend in the same way and leave gaps, I just don't think you can have two aggressive ball winners in midfield together without anyone covering.

I do understand the desire to get one of your better players back in the team, but I just don't see Devlin and Raskin as great partners for one another.

From what I saw of the game, it felt like Rangers struggled to make good use of the ball. What was especially evident was the way they struggled to play meaningful passes without giving the ball away.

An issue that cropped up with one moment in particular which we will come to, but I think this is the kind of away game where we need a midfielder willing to drop in and play the ball forward to improve build up.

What we did do well (because we had to given the midfield) was create chances from direct play. Our opener arrives from simply setting Gassama free with the ball, his pass towards the box found it's way to Lawrence Shankland, the Rangers captain made a yard on his left foot and then found the back of the net with a powerful strike.

The keeper was beaten by the power, accuracy and suddenness of the strike. It's a goal that only a good finisher would score, the awareness of the space available in the box, the technique to strike so well off the weaker side and the placement are the key parts of the goal.

It was refreshing to see us take an early lead and I was really glad to see Shankland score in consecutive games after a tough start at Rangers.

There were chances to build on the lead, Kim Min-su hit the post from outside the area with an outstanding low effort that rebounded off the inside of the post. Nico Raskin was first on the scene to a spilled shot by the keeper, he shot and hit the side netting when replays showed that given the angle he was approaching from, the Belgian should have looked to play the ball to Findlay Curtis in the middle.

We were promptly punished for these misses as Makhanya was beaten too easily down the outside and the low cross from the winger was diverted past his own keeper by Nedeljkovic. The Serbian makes the common mistake of every full back trying to defend a cross on their opposite side, he tries to use stronger side to clear the ball, even though that means the ball is more likely to go towards his own goal. It's something you see all the time, but Nedeljkovic is young, he has time to know better and use his weaker side to attack the ball.

The biggest chance for the home side came in the second half as Fernandez plays a slack pass that is intended for Pandur but has neither the accuracy nor power to reach him. It's collected by the Falkirk attacker who seems to shoot straight at the Rangers keeper with time and space to pick a corner.

It's a let off, given the fragility displayed by this team, I wouldn't expect them to come back from such a self-inflicted wound.

Instead it was Rangers, and Lawrence Shankland who took the chance presented to take all three points.

Late on, hunting for a winning goal, Rangers happy to go direct and get players in behind and generally cause it in the area. After one such scramble the ball came to the feet of Ross McCrorie on the edge of the box, showing exceptional composure, the fullback danced inside of his man before slipping the ball into Shankland. Our number 7 showed all his experience and finishing ability again as he opened his body up and finished perfectly beyond the keeper, on his left foot again no less.

Another great strike and another three points for Rangers.

Aftermath

As much as there are positives from last night, largely that our striker and captain scored two great goals and we only conceded from our own poor play. I still have concerns, because to put it simply, we've seen this one before.

Don't play well, get away with one or two big chances, show your quality and win the game anyway. We've seen so many runs like that, these all ended with the roof collapsing and a swift regression to the mean.

I alluded to being happy if we scraped a win in every away game, but that was on the basis that we atleast restricted the opposition and kept them at arms length, Falkirk didn't batter the door down but we helped them look dangerous all evening.

We have some big tests incoming for this team, Motherwell again look like a team that understands how to play football, which is our worst nightmare at the moment. If McInnes can show he's adapted his approach for those types of teams, I'll begin to believe a bit more.

Late Moves

Rangers have announced the long awaited transfer of Kevin Kelsy from Portland Timbers. Another big money signing and another big striker on the books. Now that Shankland has hit form he might need to wait for his chance off the bench.

A far more surprising move than that is the loan signing (expected to be announced later) of Bardedine Bouanani from VFB Stuttgart in Germany.

This appeared out of the blue this morning as Rangers looked to secure another right sided winger for the squad. Which is excellent given I asked explicitly for that in my article yesterday.

The Algerian is joining the club on a loan with option to buy deal for a fee of around 18 million euros. An eye-watering price, and one I would expect a big big return to justify.

Kai Watson did some scouting on him already which I will link below:

https://x.com/KaiGWatson/status/2095442746836144536

I'm not too familiar with the winger, aside from his goal against Rangers for OGC Nice back in 2024/25. He seems to know how to score a free kick at least.

From the clips of him and what Kai says, he is another inverted winger capable of creating chaos and separation when given the ball. Which chimes exactly with the managers comments about the front 4 disrupting the opposition to create danger.

I don't think this window is perfect by any means, but with the potential outlay in the forward line, even with the lack of European football, the manager has been backed and will be expected to produce results.

Even the most talented teams can be mismanaged, and I'm not going to give Derek McInnes any more leeway when he's been backed more than any manager in recent years.

I'll still be abroad for Saturday's game, but hopefully there's a bar showing it on Ischia.

Enjoy the rest of your working weeks!

Neapolitan Hospitality

As I alluded to in the byline of this blog, I'm currently on my holidays again. The blog is coming to you from a train back to Naples from Pompeii at this moment in time.

I've had a lovely time so far, but the heat is something else. Pompeii and Vesuvius are worth seeing if you've never made the trip.

Sadly the football season doesn't stop whenever I am trying to enjoy myself, and Rangers travel to Falkirk stadium tonight.

The biggest news arrived on the transfer front as Rangers have currently failed to strengthen their squad any further, and have lost two players instead.

Okay, maybe I'm being harsh, Lyall Cameron wasn't going to get any minutes any time soon. But the optics aren't great after we were promised more in the way of transfers.

Speaking of Cameron, the midfielder has joined Dundee United on loan. The former Dundee man will hope to secure a permanent move for himself as sadly it's really not happened for him at Rangers.

A surprise departure, in my eyes anyway, was Connor Barron joining Middlesbrough on loan. It seems pretty clear that our number 8 isn't in the plans of Derek McInnes on that basis, but it also feels like we didn't get a look at what he might provide. Especially given we currently love to play a midfield that's allergic to keeping the ball.

Kevin Kelsy’s move to Rangers has hit a snag due to a work permit issue. That should still happen, I'd say that we still really lack another game changing player in the front line and it doesn't seem like it's being addressed.

There was always going to be issues with transfers given our European crashout, but securing some kind of attacking loan at the very least should be a priority.

Otherwise the pressure on Yokota to perform will be astronomical, especially difficult given he seems to struggle to play 90 minutes at the moment.

A departure that seems to have been called off at the last moment is Nicolas Raskin to Besiktas.

Rumours ran rife that the Belgian was going to join on loan with an option to buy, a terrible deal for Rangers in all honesty. But according to Sky Sports the move is off. I'll keep an eye on that for the moment.

Djeidi Gassama seems to be staying with Rangers too. I essentially wrote a farewell paragraph for the Mauritanian in the last blog, so I'll keep a copy in drafts for when the winger eventually departs Ibrox.

From the outside it looks like Rangers left their transfer business too late in terms of sales. Hindsight is wonderful, but we have essentially held onto our sellable assets in the hope they would help us qualify for Europe. Promptly failed in that department, and then didn't even manage to sell said assets.

I'll call it what it is, poor business, that should invite further scrutiny towards the decision makers at Rangers.

Bairns Ahoy

Falkirk come into tonight's game with zero wins in three league games so far. A far cry from their flying start to top division life last season.

It makes them ideal opponents for a Rangers team and manager still finding their feet. John McGlynn’s side won't fear this Rangers team though, they scored 6 goals against the Ibrox side last season, earning two draws and two defeats.

There's no chance that the current form of the away side and pressure on Derek McInnes will have escaped the notice of the Bairns either.

Every game for Derek McInnes and Rangers is a must win now. There's no European football to distract the squad and there's been a lot of money invested in the playing staff. McInnes simply has to get some momentum going if he wants to keep his job.

Despite the high scoring nature of our last two fixtures at Falkirk stadium, I don't expect many goals tonight. The win at Pittodrie is the blueprint for a McInnes away victory, be solid, compete for control, don't take any risks, get the goal through direct play and hold onto the lead.

If I see a basketball score tonight I'll be shocked.

The front 4 fielded on Sunday showed promising signs of forming an understanding, so I want to see them keep their places. I'm not enamoured at the thought of starting Cammy Devlin again when we have Dragojevic sitting there, but the manager trusts the Australian and I think he will keep his starting spot.

Dan Neil had probably his best showing in a Rangers shirt at the weekend (not hard), and will be looking to build on that performance tonight.

Our back four will remain the same, no reason to disturb a unit that seems to be finding some rhythm.

Falkirk have nothing to lose tonight, their fans will not be expecting any points from consecutive games against the Old Firm. So tonight will be about commitment and showing they are up for the fight, the result will be secondary.

With that in mind, Rangers will still have to battle for everything and show they aren't intimidated by a side with a point to prove.

The message is, win, and be professional about it. If we win every away game playing like Sunday then I don't care, but if you do play like that, you simply have to win to justify it.

New Blood

To the surprise of no one, given recent performances, our new signing Kim Min-su was thrown into the line-up from the off.

Indeed there were a few system changes, the team resembled a 4-2-3-1. The new man started as the 10 but the wide men, Curtis and Gassama rotated positions a few times during the match.

Cammy Devlin and Dan Neil started together at the base of midfield, almost acting like two number sixes, without much license to get forward.

It was an attempt to provide a bit of security by starting two defensive minded midfielders instead of one. Given McInnes’ comments after the game, he clearly views the engine room as having the sole responsibility of winning the ball and giving it to more talented players.

I don't think this is an incredibly effective way of playing. But for a low confidence team that's struggled to show any consistency going forward, it's not a mistake to simplify the roles of those on the pitch.

There are questions about the quality of those in the forward line, should we giving them creative license? And is that going to lead us to consistent wins and goals?

On the one hand, Kim Min-su looks like a high quality addition. He had a couple of really bright moments and didn't look overawed by the occasion, or by the rough treatment from the home side. His ability to take the ball in tight spaces and carry it was very impressive. He will need to get used to his teammates but that will come with time.

I can see the Korean flourishing in a free role behind the striker. But his teammates, I'm not sure we've seen enough dynamism to suggest that they should be given the keys to the city.

But I asked for some tactical changes and moves in the right direction, and we got that.

Whistler

I hate to join the tired discourse about the refereeing. I'm sure no one has been able to escape the constant conversation about the referee deciding the game on Sunday etc.

Technically speaking, he did decide the game. But I don't think his major decisions were in any controversial?

First of all, Gassama picked up the ball in the Aberdeen box, and dropped his shoulder, the Dons defender panicked and went to ground. Our winger didn't even have time to be clever as he was completely taken out by the terrible tackle.

The ref didn't hesitate, he pointed to the spot and ignored the protests of the home side. Lawrence Shankland ruthlessly dispatched the penalty to get his second Rangers goal, both coming from the spot.

We didn't build on our lead, instead seeming to shrink back and protect what we had. Quite a disappointing approach, but I do feel like that comes from the manager.

Aberdeen took advantage of our reluctance to adventure forward and attempted to equalise.

Lots of direct football, testing our back line. Manny Fernandez rose to the occasion here and headed away constant long balls and crosses.

It looked like Aberdeen had got their goal after a goal line scramble led to Kevin Nisbet heading home.

But the celebrations were cut short as the ref was sent to the monitor. In the initial phase, Nisbet had pushed Dujon Sterling in the back to reach the ball, it was a very clear decision despite the protests of Stephen Robinson after the game.

And as an added bonus, replays showed that Nisbet was offside into the bargain.

The game was very physical and the ref did try and control things with bookings, but even then there were a few robust challenges from both teams that avoided cards in the early stages. And that might be why we saw an Aberdeen player throw an elbow in the second half, if the ref is letting it go, why not.

Rangers did escape the game unscathed, and left Pittodrie with all 3 points.

Shoots of Hope

A long-awaited league win is welcome, if we want to think about the title this season, and at the moment, I don't, we've already lost an incredible amount of ground to Celtic.

If you are playing catch-up from the beginning it very rarely ends well.

I'm happy that we got three points, but I think I want to see us mastering playing well sooner rather than later.

Grinding out three points only goes so far. We've seen plenty of Rangers team force their way to a couple of wins in a row only for it all to fall apart.

I don't want to discuss the captain talking about “the real Rangers” being on show. I'd like to think we are a long way off that.

For now let's be grateful for three points and look forward to our new signing coming in the door.

Familiar Faces

In what seems like a rather poetic moment, Derek McInnes has his last chance saloon away at Pittodrie. A club he knows very well from his time there.

Your favourite blogger is in a tender state this morning. So a Rangers win is really needed.

The rumours about the manager walking turned out to be just that, rumours. McInnes reaffirmed his determination to succeed as Rangers manager, usual platitudes, the talking has to be done on the pitch.

We should see our new signings start, cause we need something, that's for sure. Aside from that, let's hope we see our team stick with the same formation for 90 minutes.

The tinkering and the changing hasn't helped us, we need the manager to acknowledge that and try and build something of note.

Aberdeen will be absolutely desperate to get one over their old manager and potentially hand him his jotters.

This game already has enough needle and our record at Pittodrie is patchy at times.

I for one, can wait, watching Rangers is a trial this season. Let's hope we see something go for us.

Same Again, Bartender

There were no surprises in the starting line-up last night. Clearly the manager felt that it’s best to stick with the set up that got us a result last week. Well, not for long.

Our glorious leader clearly didn’t believe in his own formation or tactical choices. We got to half time in what was quite a disappointing half. There was clear confusion about how we were planning to press, players struggled to go man-to-man, a theme of this season.

When you play in a man-to-man pressing system in the modern game, you need to be two things, incredibly fit and 100% committed. We saw Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds team come up to the Premier League and shake things up with an intense man-to-man press. They finished 9th in 2020/21, a great result for a newly promoted team and with some big scalps taken along the way.

What happened to them? Did they kick on and break into Europe next season? No, teams worked out how susceptible the system was to runners from deep, Bielsa refused to change his ways, he was sacked in February and they finished 17th under Jesse Marsch.

That’s an over-simplification of what happened, but this isn’t a Leeds United blog. I wanted an example of the vulnerability of a man-to-man press. Bielsa is one of the founding fathers of modern pressing, but it’s quite telling that those who mark him as an inspiration took his best ideas and softened them to find success. While Bielsa has never enjoyed consistent success.

Why am I bringing up Marcelo Bielsa? Well, if a visionary manager like Bielsa can’t win things consistently with a man-to-man pressing system. Then why would we expect Derek McInnes to find success with that approach?

Rangers aren’t at the fitness levels required and I think there’s clearly an issue with the way information is given to the players, none of them seem to understand what they are being asked to, on a very consistent basis this season.

From our pre-season game against St Etienne, in which the opposition tweaked their approach slightly to disrupt our pressing and we simply didn’t have an answer for the rest of the game, I’ve not seen the press work effectively in any game.

Even against St Mirren in the cup, the Buddies were able to find space and bypass the first press regularly.

Clearly the manager doesn’t back himself to explain the concept any better than before the match, because he abandoned this approach at half time.

Toil

We saw the return of the back three, fresh from being discarded at half time against Jagiellona Bialystok at home. It seemed to stem the flow of opposition attacks, but having two forwards didn’t change things going forward for us.

I mentioned that Jablonec are a good side defensively in my preview, but they aren’t 90s AC Milan, this squad has more than enough quality to pick them apart. Instead we saw 120 minutes of football without creating a single chance of note.

What Jablonec are not, is a brilliant attacking side, they failed to take advantage of the space they were afforded in the first half and I thought maybe we had got away with one.

But no, despite having fewer opportunities to create in the second half, they managed to take the lead on the night and equalise on aggregate after the Jablonec number 7 turned James Penrice inside and out before firing low into the back of the net past Ivor Pandur.

Panic stations again for Derek McInnes, we seemed to change set up, Naderi was withdrawn and Findlay Curtis was asked to play alongside Shankland up front.

Curtis is a classic young player trying to impress the manager, doesn’t let his confusion at what he’s being asked to do stop him from showing a bit of industry and trying to make things happen.

I don’t think we looked like a team that wanted to avoid extra time, if anything we committed fewer men forward in the attack when we fell behind. We chucked plenty of hopeful crosses towards the back post, and let me tell you, if I see us play that loose pass towards Shankland’s feet ONE more time, I’m deleting the blog. Don’t know how many times I can watch a team try the same pass that didn’t work once in Shankland’s time on the pitch.

Unsurprisingly, we ended up in extra time, another roll of the dice as we went to a 4-3-3 with our new right back on the wing.

For reasons I can’t quite fathom, such tactical innovation didn’t turn the game on it’s head. Cue the return to a 4-4-2 as Miovski appeared from the bench.

This was another pointless shuffle, and the game went to penalties, which looked inevitable from the Jablonec goal.

Not going to be too harsh on the players missing, Curtis undone by a divot and Penrice with a poor effort in all honesty. But it shouldn’t have got to that stage.

Where do we go from here?

Six substitutions

Four formation changes

Zero goals

Two missed penalties

No European Football

We can talk till the cows come home about the details of last night, what went wrong, which player could have done better and how things could have gone.

But the cold hard facts are listed above, for the first time since 2018, Rangers are out of all European competitions in August. That side contained Jason Holt, Dalcio, Declan John and David Bates. It was assembled for a lot less than the squad that played last night.

We had the warning signs when we were knocked out of the Europa league, we didn’t take any action then, and now we have nothing.

I can’t begin to encapsulate how disastrous that is for Rangers. There are rumours of the manager leaving, I don’t foresee any complaints if he was to leave/be sacked right now.

Derek McInnes continues to talk about improving performances, maybe at some stage seeing that improvement could be good?

But so far, I have to say that I’m starting to think that 50ish appearances for Rangers as a player doesn’t mean you are qualified to manage the team? Who knew.

Warning Signs

I joke, obviously, I will not be engaging in any schadenfreude until after tonight’s game, our tie is far more in the balance than the one that took place on Tuesday night.

Although Rangers had some good spells last week, they did not set the world alight and the opposition will not have any fear going into tonight’s game. One thing that works massively in our favour is that we restricted Jablonec to minimal chances.

If you look at the stats, Jablonec had their first shot in the 18th minute, and their second came in the 83rd. Nearly 10 minutes after Cammy Devlin’s red card.

I mentioned in my preview for the game that Jablonec are not a team that create a plethora of chances and score lots of goals. Games involving the Czechs are low-scoring, with the focus from tonight’s home side largely being on staying compact and keeping a clean sheet.

That means tonight, they will have to change their approach. I wonder if they will revert to their regular back three, after starting with a four last week, it didn’t help them defend and it didn’t cause Rangers too many issues, so I suspect that will be a likely change.

Given how high Rangers like to defend and the responsibility they give to Makhanya and Fernandez to patrol halfway, the home side will likely field a narrow front 3, gambling that Rangers won’t want to be outnumbered on the break.

To combat such an aggressive approach, I think this would be a game for the full backs to curb their attacking tendencies, especially Sterling, given he is a stronger defender than attacker anyway.

Playing away in Europe requires discipline and a stronger emphasis on control. In the previous round in Poland, we saw naivety at times, especially for the winning goal, Rangers committed bodies forward carelessly hunting for a second goal that wasn’t really necessary (especially before half time).

The message for tonight’s game has to be about maintaining control above all else, the players are well rested, they had no game at the weekend, there’s no reason we can’t set up in a mid block and press aggressively whenever the ball enters the middle third. Keep the opposition away from our area and don’t leave anything to chance.

By the looks of things we will have Gassama and Yokota available, both should start and have license to stay high and be a threat when we retain possession. Jablonec know that conceding a goal could be deadly to their chances of winning the tie, they don’t have a fevered atmosphere or intimidating stadium like some teams in Europe. Killing the atmosphere has to be high on the list of early priorities for Rangers, take our time with throw-ins, set pieces and look to keep the ball away from the home side.

Things can happen in Europe, good and bad, we’ve seen that already this week. You give yourself the best possible chance of avoiding such happenings by doing the basics and making things very difficult for the opposition.

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Comings and Goings?

Derek McInnes gave an update on the squad in his press conference, noting that Ben Godfrey is back in the squad and that Nicolas Raskin has dropped out. Not due to injury, we were reassured, but due to potential transfer activity.

First of all, the honesty is refreshing, I’m sure we could have guessed it anyway, we aren’t stupid, but to have the manager just say it as it is, is nice.

Secondly, where is he off to? Well, talk has been rife all summer of a move to Aston Villa, but that’s gone a bit quiet, surprising given the rather bare midfield they started in their 4-0 defeat to Brighton on Sunday.

Turkish clubs have shown interest, as they seem to do in every player who is available for sale. Fenerbahce were the biggest link, but a new Turkish rumour appeared this morning.

Besiktas have allegedly joined the fray. Apparently they are interested in making Vaclav Cerny part of the deal for our Belgian midfielder. It sounds too good to be true, and I don’t want to give these things too much weight.

But, the facts we have are thus:

• Rangers want Vaclav Cerny and have made enquiries to Besiktas

• Besiktas aren’t afraid to spend to bring in talent to compete at the top of the Turkish league.

• Raskin’s international teammate Leandro Trossard signed for Besiktas at the start of the window.

I could be putting 2 and 2 together and getting 5, but what’s the transfer window without a little bit of fun speculation?

Another name linked with a move away is Djeidi Gassama. Reports say that both Monza and Parma in Seria A have offered 6 million pounds for the winger. Rangers have elected to reject both offers and are holding out for a higher fee close to 10 million.

It’s important that we hold firm on our valuation of our players, but I think selling Gassama for a reasonable fee that gives us some profit is a good deal. The Mauritanian has flattered to deceive during his time at the club and a fresh start with a good fee going to Rangers could suit both parties.

It looks like his replacement is already close to signing as Kim Min-su of Girona has been heavily linked with a move to Rangers. There was some quibbling over the fee but it looks like the Korean will arrive at Ibrox for a fee around 8.5 million pounds. No small outlay for a player.

With that kind of fee you’d have to hope that the winger is ready to hit the ground running. At only 20 years of age and with less than 100 senior appearances, it seems like he may need some time to develop before being ready for the limelight at the club like Rangers. I hope I’m wrong, but it seems like we are spending big on potential when we need players who can make an instant impact.

Kim Min-su would be our most expensive signing of the summer, but it looks like that will be gazumped immediately by another signing.

Our Chermiti replacement, Kevin Kelsy, is expected to sign for Rangers for 9.5 million pound from Portland Timbers. The Venezuelan stands at an intimidating 6’4 and will certainly replicate the physical stature of Chermiti.

Looking at his highlight reel, the striker has a nice collection of finishes off his left foot, but the thing that stood out for me is his movement. He is alive in the box at all times, surprisingly agile for such a towering figure. Given Chermiti would often frustrate with his tendency to come short rather than getting in behind, I don’t think we will have that issue with Kelsy.

It’s another big fee and I wonder where it leaves our captain? On paper he would be third choice behind Naderi and Kelsy if we stick with one striker. I worry that this is the manager preparing to shift back to playing two up front, which has looked ineffective all season.

But let’s focus on the joy of new transfers and worry about that later.

Talk from Within

Tochi Chukwuani spoke to the press this week. Talking about how he can do more playing higher up the pitch.

On the basis of what we’ve seen of him in that new role, I’d agree. He had some very strong games playing at the base of midfield last season, winning the ball and moving it very nicely. But in games where we needed more control, it didn’t really suit him.

Moving him into the number 8 position allows him to rampage around the middle and final thirds. He can use his ball-winning to great effect to maintain pressure on teams and then carry the ball into dangerous areas when needed.

In tonight’s game, having a player who is capable of winning the ball and carrying it 30 yards is crucial to breaking up any attacking momentum of the home team and making them face their own goal.

Derek McInnes didn’t have anything too interesting to say in his press conference aside from the transfer talk. He did mention the need to continue improving, which is good. I wouldn’t want him to rest on his laurels after two wins in a row.

I wanted to highlight the hilarious question right at the end of the press conference, presumably from a Czech journalist:

After yesterday’s game of Celtic, do you see tomorrow’s game as some kind of match of pride for Scottish football?

The manager did a good job of hiding his bemusement as clearly the journalist is not familiar with the strength of feeling involved in the Old Firm rivalry. McInnes responded that “the pride is for us” before giving some standard lines on the game.

It really made me chuckle, hopefully the pride is indeed for us, and let’s save Scottish football while we’re at it.

Silver Bullet

Like most people who like to comment on Rangers in their spare time, I have been big on the 4-3-3 and how it should be our system going forward. That hasn’t changed after last night, but I think it shows how important personnel are to making any system work. While we improved hugely on Sunday, the bar was set pretty low before then.

But I am getting ahead of myself, the only change from Sunday was Dan Neil coming in for Raskin, taking the captain’s armband too. Raskin is managing an ankle injury according to the manager so that explains that change.

The first half was a mixed bag. Jablonec made a mockery of my pre-match analysis by fielding a back four for the fourth time in about 100 games. We huffed and buffed and lacked real quality in the final third.

I think our lack of a quality number six is really exposed in these kinds of games. Neil would have a telling contribution later, but as a whole we should have someone passing teams to absolute death. I’ve been harping on about it since I started the blog, and it doesn’t seem to have been noticed by the club.

Our biggest chance in the first half fell to Dragojevic. The Serbian started the move with quite an impressive improvised touch to get the ball wide to Gassama. The Mauritanian got the ball into the area to Naderi, the striker was intelligent enough to see Dragojevic arriving and laid the ball into his path. Our number 22’s low effort deflected off the inside of the post and stayed out.

I found myself scouring the highlights to see if I missed anything obvious, Chukwuani put a dangerous ball across the box that Naderi couldn’t quite reach, but aside from that, there was very little of note to report.

In the second half we improved, Naderi asked for a penalty that some refs probably would have given, but it didn’t go our way on this occasion.

Then came the defining moment of the match. Dan Neil found himself in space on the edge of the area, Yokota made a clever run in behind, taking advantage of the left back’s deep positioning (maybe they should have played a back three eh), Neil picked him out with an excellent ball curled in behind. The Japanese winger had the wherewithal to head the ball across the goal, and who should be waiting but a very grateful Ryan Naderi who cushioned the ball into the empty net.

A deserved breakthrough, as much as Rangers lacked some fluency in their play, Jablonec offered nothing going forward.

The scoreline should have been made more comfortable going into the second leg as Gassama missed a gilt-edged chance to double our advantage. Naderi turned provider as he played an excellent cross to the winger after good work from Chukwuani beforehand, Gassama’s bodyshape was all wrong and he instead put his effort over the bar.

Derek McInnes elected to shut up shop shortly afterwards as he introduced Cammy Devlin for Dragojevic. I think there’s been a lot of hyperbole about Devlin in both directions, some say he’s the worst player we’ve ever had, some felt his energy is exactly what we’ve been missing for years.

I sit in the middle, I wasn’t too enthused by his signing, was impressed with the early signs, but I’ve always maintained that he’s not someone who should be given too much responsibility on the ball. His tendency to dive in can make him a potential weakness in midfield too. His appearance in yesterday’s game didn’t make any sense for a team who had no issues dominating the ball, why would you lose a player who helps you keep the ball for one that is best at winning it back?

Him being an odd choice of substitute doesn’t really affect his decision to get sent off however. Everyone in the stadium was bemused, even watching it back I am quite bemused at what was going through the Australian’s head. He’s trying to stick a leg out to win a penalty? Maybe? What actually happened was he looked like he was attempting to murder the opposition player. So after a VAR check he was dismissed.

Then we really did have to shut up shop, and as the final whistle went, myself and many others wondered how we’d made such hard work of what should have been a much better result.

In the Balance

Let’s talk positives, what went well?

• We won another game, two in a row.

• Clean sheet, first of the season.

• Limited the opposition to nothing going forward.

• Makhanya continues to look like a very good signing.

• Naderi with 2 in 2.

That’s a good list of positives, if you just read that you’d be happy. But I think the issue is more that having another performance with issues across the middle and final thirds, makes you worried for the games against higher quality opposition.

Emmanuel Fernandez continues to play like a man that self-medicates to cure his insomnia. I saw some more rumours of transfer interest his way, wouldn’t mind that materialising so we can think about investing some money in the rest of the team as well as getting a new defender in.

The manager shared his concerns post-match:

I am disappointed with some aspects of it, but we have got to try and take the positives from the game in the sense that I thought we deserved our win.

I felt that the start of the second-half was a far better performance, because it was just far too bitty in the first half. I thought we were guilty of being a bit laboured in possession and just allowed them a wee bit more encouragement.

I don't think Ivor has had much to do in that sense, and we never gave up any real chances but, I would still like us to hammer home a bit more authority and a bit more confidence with our play.

As always, it’s good to see that the manager is similarly dissatisfied with the levels on show. He also mentioned in another press conference that the team have to do more to maintain the momentum amongst the fans by keeping the tempo on the park. A good point that speaks of someone who understands the power of the crowd and what it can do for this team.

Next week we have to see if we can show the kind of control and discipline we showed last night in an away game. A much different prospect, although Jablonec don’t have a cauldron by any means. Neither did Jagiellona and we wilted there.

I hate to be unenthusiastic about a win, but with what we’ve seen from the team so far this season, it’s hard to get excited.

Serbian Revolution

Rangers have signed their second Serbian of the summer in Kosta Nedeljkovic. The right back joins the club on loan from Aston Villa with a conditional obligation to buy based on appearances made. The fee is reported to be about four million pounds.

I’ve moaned all summer about the need to sign a right back to replace James Tavernier as it was very apparent that Ross McCrorie shouldn’t be starting the majority of games for Rangers. It’s good to see the club address that need.

So what do we know about Nedeljkovic? Well I can tell you that typing his name out is tripping me up as I try and remember the “ljk” in the middle. In a rare move for a transfer this season, I’ve actually watched Nedeljkovic play before.

Back in 2024 I was sitting down on a Sunday afternoon to watch Aston Villa play Arsenal at Villa Park. 15 minutes into the game, Matty Cash went down injured for the home side and made way for the Serbian. I remember thinking “Well Arsenal are going to have it easy down that side, I’ve never heard of this guy and he’s about 18”.

I was very wrong, Nedeljkovic impressed me with his composure on the ball and the power he displayed when driving forward. He didn’t look out of place in a game against one of the best teams in the world. It wasn’t a flawless performance by any means and he was certainly caught out by the very clever movement and technical quality of substitute Leandro Trossard in a game that Villa eventually lost 2-0. However, he wasn’t the first full back to be bamboozled by the diminutive Belgian and he’s far from the last.

After the game I made a mental note to keep an eye on the young Serbian and expected him to be the Villans first choice right back in a few years. That season he was loaned to RB Leipzig and impressed in limited minutes. He returned to the German side on loan for 25/26 and the expectation was that he would make the move permanent for about 15 million pounds at the end of the season.

Two medium-sized injuries at very inopportune points of the season put a stop to that move as he simply wasn’t on the pitch enough to justify the transfer.

Which means the stars have aligned perfectly, Rangers need a right back, Nedeljkovic needs a new platform to get back to his best and kick on. The obligation to buy being contingent on appearances means that we will be buying a full back who has proven his fitness, and will avoid being stuck with another injury prone right back.

The Serbian should be added to the squad in time for tonight’s game so let’s hope we get a good look at him.

Health and Safety Czechs

When I started this blog, I didn’t expect Rangers to be so Czech-adjacent, I’ve almost completely ran out of puns for blog titles now. Vaclav Cerny got the best ones and then he left, never to return.

That brings us to tonight’s opponents, hailing from (if you couldn’t work it out) the Czech Republic. They finished 4th in the league last season, a massive 20 points off Slavia Prague, an especially impressive gap given they only play 30 games a season.

They’ve started this season well, winning 3 out of 3 league games before having some postponed ahead of the play offs (no competitive advantage for us then).

Finishing 4th in the league makes sense when you look at the fees they are paying for players compared to their competitors. They have signed 12 players this summer for an estimated total expenditure of around 2 and a half million euros. Slavia Prague have spent more than that on 5 separate players this summer. Even the third placed team, Viktoria Plzen have bought two players for 3 million euros each.

You get the sense that Jablonec are a distant fourth in that league. Not that we should be taking any opponents lightly at the moment. We were also miles ahead of Jagiellona on paper and look how that ended up.

Jablonec are very dedicated to a back three, across last season and the early fixtures in this one, I could only see 3 games in which they deployed a back four. It tends to be a choice of 3-4-2-1, 3-4-3 or 3-5-2.

As you can expect for a team punching above their financial weight consistently, they play on the counter as much as possible. Out of possession the three becomes a five with very tight man-marking, midfielders screen the defence and don’t step out to engage with the ball.

When they win the ball they are very direct and effective as a result, get the ball into the wing backs and wingers (or have the midfielders adventure into wide areas if there’s two up front) and look to find space to either cross from deep or get in behind and find a cut back.

That approach is reflected in their stats. Only two players in their squad recorded 5 goals or more in all competitions, Jan Chramosta and Lamin Jawo, both strikers instructed to stay in the width of the goal and attack those deliveries.

Jablonec aren’t particularly prolific and rely on defensive solidity and keeping clean sheets to get their results across the line. From watching clips of their victories, they tend to spend the latter periods of games with 7 or 8 players back defending the area, hoping to suffocate opposition attacks.

Weaknesses? The glaring one is set pieces, if you watch the highlights of their Conference League qualifiers this season, they look physically outmatched at every corner, requiring their keeper to bail them out on multiple occasions per game. Rangers were excellent at set pieces last season, and although we have a new set piece coach, things haven’t clicked on that front yet. Tonight would be a good chance for that to start.

From open play, if we deploy the 4-3-3 shape again, I expect us to dominate the midfield, they won’t be stepping out to engage the ball and I think that’s perfect for us. Start the same midfield three as Sunday and we can pass rings around them.

Isolating the wingers will be more difficult given the number of defenders on the pitch, meaning the use of our full backs, especially Penrice’s ability to deliver from deep, will be very important.

Guarding against the counter-attacking threat is crucial, the best way to do that is to push them into their own area and not allowing them the ball.

If It Ain’t Broke

The manager’s press conference yesterday had some interesting tidbits. There were reassurances that we are working to sign a striker after Chermiti’s injury, with that the next signing to expect. There’s been lots of links to Portland Timbers striker, Kevin Kelsy. But we will wait and see how that develops.

The largest outgoing expected this summer was Nicolas Raskin, so far there’s been very little movement on that front. But the manager alluded to the recent interest from Fenerbahce, stating that Nico has been a top professional and has his full focus on Rangers for the moment.

Worryingly, the manager was quick to state that the 4-3-3 that finally saw us gain a semblance of quality in our play was not necessarily a permanent choice. McInnes has already shown that he wants to play the 4-4-2 regardless of the occasion this season, and I really hope that’s an attitude that doesn’t last too long, otherwise I fear the manager won’t.

But I choose to be an optimist, let’s hope we pick up where we left off on Sunday and take the game to the Czechs. I don’t want my Thursdays to be quiet this season.

Changes Afoot

I've given up being excited about the release of the starting eleven this season, it normally only leads to disappointment. Even with that attitude, the team sheet was probably the best we could have asked for as fans.

Our new signing in at left back, Makhanya and Fernandez continuing at centre back, Sterling back at right back is our best back four with what we have available.

Despite lacking an obvious number six, the midfield three was robust and athletic. There are definitely still certain aspects lacking in our midfield options which I will go into. I think in games against physical opposition it makes sense to select a physically dominant midfield, and we did that here.

Gassama and Yokota were restored to their natural wide berths with Naderi leading the line through the middle.

Most pleasing of all was the team being deployed in a traditional 4-3-3 shape, rather than the 4-4-2 we've become accustomed to.

Shoot First, Defend Later

Rangers started the game enthusiastically, which was good to see given the chance for the team to be at a low ebb after Thursday.

We were competitive in the middle and very quick to get the ball into the final third, in the opening 20 minutes we lacked a bit of quality and decision making to turn these promising positions into chances.

But the best thing about playing aggressively and on the front foot is that it makes things happen without the process needing to be perfect.

So it proved when just before the 10 minute mark, Naderi flicked on a long ball which the defender hesitated in dealing with. Seizing upon this hesitation was Djeidi Gassama, taking the ball and racing towards the St Mirren goal. He cut inside and out before his effort was saved, it seemed like the chance may have been squandered but the Mauritanian did well to get up and contest the ball in the air, there was a moment of silence as the ball dropped in the six-yard box. Swiftest to react was Ryan Naderi, appearing at the vital moment to smuggle the ball home.

It wasn't a neat and tidy goal, but we will take what we can get at the moment.

Given our inability to hold onto a lead in recent matches, it was imperative that we built on that lead by maintaining our momentum. So it was quite bizarre to see Fernandez taking a risk and being dispossessed in a dangerous area.

So continues the bizarre form of Manny Fernandez this season. He looks a far cry from the imperious presence we saw at times last season. At the moment he's going to be starting every game for Rangers, so I need him to get his head sorted.

Thankfully his lapse in concentration didn't lead to a goal and we doubled our advantage shortly afterwards as Vanja Dragojevic got his first goal for Rangers.

As first goals go, it's up there with some of the best I've seen. Gassama had a spectacular effort against Panathinaikos last season but that had nothing on yesterday’s effort.

Penrice swung in a Rangers free kick, the ball was half cleared, chested by Dragojevic and volleyed into the top corner by the Serbian.

I'm underselling the goal because despite it's relatively simple description, it should be viewed through one's own eyes to be appreciated.

2-0 and relatively comfortable. What a pleasant change!

Of course we then started to look far less sure of ourselves, the players were still keen to play and get a third goal. But mistakes crept into our play.

It seemed like we were going to get to half time before a loose pass from Dragojevic eluded Raskin. Mochrie collected the ball and drove into the resulting gap before lancing an effort into the top corner.

It was a really good finish, but the manner in which it arose was absolutely of our own making.

The concession changed the mood going into half time, as understandably fans feared a potential capitulation given the antics in recent weeks.

Yokota made way at half time for Findlay Curtis as the Japanese winger continues to struggle with completing ninety minutes for Rangers.

He played a crucial part in Rangers’ third goal. Penrice won the second ball in the air after a deep free kick from St Mirren was launched into the box. Gassama couldn't reach the ball but when it fell to Curtis he played a delightful first time ball past the defenders scrambling to get past half way.

Penrice followed this great ball up with a fantastic one of his own, playing the perfect weight of pass round the corner to the lightning quick Gassama. Our number 23 watched the keeper approach before calmly side footing the ball into the back of the net.

Transitions have been a point of improvement for Rangers in the last 3/4 seasons, so watching us score a really fantastic goal on the counter with such pace was a genuinely positive step for this team.

Our fourth goal swiftly followed as James Penrice marked his Rangers debut goal with a goal. A flowing move started with a pass from Dragojevic finding Chukwuani who elegantly flicked the ball over his marker before driving on, his pass found Curtis who moved the ball to Naderi, his lay off was played to Gassama by the onrushing Chukwuani. Gassama cut inside and his blocked shot was eventually tucked home by Penrice who had continued to advance into the area.

St Mirren were pretty much dead and buried by this stage. There was time for some goal mouth action at both ends though.

First, Fernandez continued his erratic form by giving away a penalty as St Mirren attacked the area. He was miles off it with the challenge.

Up stepped Killian Phillips. He sent Pandur the wrong way initially, but was told to retake his spot kick as the whistle hadn't been blown.

Pandur dived the same way on the retake but Phillips second guessed himself, changed direction and the Croatian saved easily.

McCausland then added a fifth for Rangers as he finished a loose ball after Shankland had initially hit the post.

You got the sense that the Northern Irishman’s goal was a bit of a farewell as he surely (hopefully) heads out the door on a permanent deal this summer.

And so the full time whistle went on a Rangers victory for the first time this season.

Swashbuckling

When talking about the key performers in yesterday's game, you can't overlook the man-of-the-match, James Penrice.

I talked about how he represented a more steady mould of fullback rather than one that would gallop forward at any given opportunity. I've never been more wrong.

Penrice dazzled on his debut, continually providing a option during our build up play, and then managing to find space on the outside with relentless runs in behind. That's before you even get to his passing and crossing, both superb and a massive part of the reason why we carried so much more attacking threat in this game compared to previous.

He expressed his enthusiasm about his Rangers move in his post match interview on Premier Sports. A good watch if you haven't seen it.

This only adds to the frustration of many fans that this move didn't happen earlier in the summer. Why the club would wait till their hand was forced is bemusing and looks a really poor decision in hindsight.

But he's here now, and what a great fit he looks in this team. We still require reinforcement at right back to replace James Tavernier, but I think Penrice should give us some of that ability to receive the ball from the centre backs that we've sorely lacked this season.

Dragojevic was a bit with his simple but direct passing and eagerness to cover ground. I think Chukwuani really flourished by being cut loose from a defensive role.

The Dane had some good games in Danny Röhl’s 4-2-2-2 system last season, but it's clear that he's far more effective using his physicality and ability to win duels higher up the pitch. St Mirren struggled to play into midfield consistently, and I think that was largely down to the presence of the rampaging Chukwuani. Hopefully he continues to have a positive impact in his new role.

The change in system also got the best out of two much maligned individuals in Gassama and Naderi. Both scored and were heavily involved in Rangers attacking play. Neither are perfect and we shouldn't get carried away from one good game, but we can hope this is the start of something for both.

Perfect?

Despite the positivity of yesterday's attacking performance. I do have some concerns defensively.

St Mirren found it very easy to work themselves into positions where they were 1 v 1 across our backline. It reminded me of the St Etienne game in that sense.

Although we were saved by some good defending from individuals and poor decision making from the Buddies’ forwards.

Rangers could have won 100-0 and I would still be preaching caution, such is the way of things at this club. But I think we need to see far more of this system against different opponents before we start changing the colour of the ribbons on any trophies.

The mood across the club is finally hitting a positive note for the first time this season, let's hope McInnes recognises that and doesn't change a system that finally seemed to generate some results.

James the 1st Choice Left Back

Rangers decided to address the glaring hole in the left side of defence by signing James Penrice from AEK Athens on loan with an option to buy.

The 27-year-old cut his teeth playing in Scotland with spells at Partick Thistle, Livingston and Hearts before departing for Greece.

Although not a spectacular flying full back, Penrice is probably best known for his consistency and reliability. Despite the title of the chapter, I don't see him pushing Tuur Rommens for a starting spot. However, given we are without the Belgian for about 8 weeks, he has plenty of time to stake a claim.

The links to Penrice started a few years ago, when he was at Hearts. Indeed there were rumours that we had a deal agreed for the Scot before we signed Rommens in January.

It's a very middle of the road signing. No one is going to hate the signing of a back up full back. The issue that fans will have is that it's overdue.

We've dropped into the bottom tier of European competition with serious financial consequences for the club. Having Penrice in the door may not have made a difference on Thursday, but there's no doubt that we made things difficult for ourselves through poor preparation.

None of that is his fault, and I hope he has a great career here.

Cup Team?

I don't have the physical or mental strength to go over how poor things have been this season. So I'm trying to look at things with a positive outlook.

Maybe we can find our form in the cups and finish the season with some silverware?

I know, we haven't won a game yet this season and I'm talking about winning trophies.

But my thought process is, Derek McInnes loves to foster a siege mentality with his teams. We all remember his Aberdeen side with a chip on their shoulder in every game, but it worked for them.

If you can take that mentality into the cups, you can get fired up for a few games a season and potentially get round the distinct lack of quality in the squad and win a trophy.

It would be a great start to building that siege mentality by getting a win and sticking it to the man.

Not winning would maybe finish me off. I've got time to recover before kick off but I fear I may need an extra day.

Rangers need to know that I am relying on them, hopefully they give us something we can actually begin to enjoy.

Threeform

Before I have to turn my mind to the actual 90 minutes, let's cast our mind back to the pre-match and the line-up announcement. It looked like a back three, I wondered if McInnes was pulling a fast one like we saw against Hibs.

Having the wingers as wingbacks and a midfield 3 including Thelo Aasgaard was exactly the kind of ambition we've been asking for all season.

So, as the game was ready to kick off under a crisp evening sun, I was feeling apprehensive but I was pleased to see such a forward thinking line-up.

15 Glorious Minutes

The game started chaotically, Rangers were throwing men forward, overloading in wide areas, Raskin and Neil were winning the ball and moving it wide.

I started to believe, this new formation was the one, three mobile pacey defenders who could cover space and sweep up any danger. Two strikers on the pitch.

Then I had a thought, was this early success down to some brilliant tactical play by Rangers thanks to our manager? Or was it a case of one team spending two weeks preparing to play against a 4-4-2 or a 4-3-3, then being faced with a 3-5-2 full of attacking players?

I started to fear it was the latter, and when the opposition hit the post after getting in behind. Alarm bells were ringing.

But, it doesn't matter the reasoning, if it was going to get us the win, I didn't care. That's a problem to worry about in the long-term.

And when we took the lead, Shankland getting his first Rangers goal from the penalty spot. The momentum was firmly with Rangers and I expected us to MAYBE get the job done.

There were lots of half chances too, Yokota had plenty of luck down the right, he continues to impress.

The away side looked dangerous at times but I was confident that if we kept the pressure on, we could potentially get a second goal.

Ofcourse, that's not what happened. As the second half began there was widespread confusion as we withdrew Aasgaard for McCrorie and went back to 4-4-2.

McInnes says this decision was to get the wing backs higher up the pitch, but I don't see how that would work with less ambitious full backs and less freedom in the wide areas.

As you'd expect, we reverted to type in the 4-4-2: struggling to build attacks, looking vulnerable when we lose the ball and struggling to press.

The game went exactly as you'd expect, the away team grew in confidence, we shrunk in the face of such confidence, the equaliser came from typically suspect defending.

I had no belief that we'd get another goal. We looked beaten. Fast becoming a theme this season.

Conference Call

Rangers will get their first taste of Conference League football. Maybe we will actually win a game?

Last night was disastrous, tacked onto the disastrous start to the league season. The pressure is mounting, League Cup on Sunday and if we lose that tie, I'd suggest it's probably curtains for McInnes. Or at the very least, he will be a dead man walking.

Well the good thing is, at least we have some reinforcements arriving…..

Curb your enthusiasm theme plays

Dropping Like Flies

Just when it looked like Sunday’s game couldn’t hurt us any more, the injury news dropped.

For those who haven’t seen, Youssef Chermiti suffered an Anterior Cruciate Ligament injury. Also known as the worst injury a footballer can sustain. The Portuguese striker will likely miss the rest of the season and certainly won’t be subject to any more big money bids in the near future.

This news is devastating for a number of reasons, the most obvious one being that we are down a nailed on member of the starting eleven. Opinion on Chermiti is still mixed in the support, but there’s no doubt that when everyone else seemed to down tools towards the end of the season, the big man was shouldering the burden of being Rangers main attacking force.

His big-game record will also be missed, 4 goals against Celtic and 4 against Hearts is a very impressive return and not something that can be easily replicated.

From a business perspective, the club has lost it’s most valuable asset for an extended period of time and he will now only depreciate in value during that time. That’s not even taking into account the complications that often follow ACL injuries. It’s not uncommon for players to need a full season of fitness to shake off the long-term effects, and some are simply never the same player. But on the other hand, some are Ronaldo Nazario, get three serious knee injuries and still become the best striker in the world. So there’s hope yet.

Just when it looked like we couldn’t take any more bad injury news, it was also revealed that Tuur Rommens faces a spell on the sidelines. Between 4 and 8 weeks is what is being reported and was confirmed by the manager the other day.

Rommens hasn’t hit top form this season, but he’s our only left back. It creates a selection dilemma for tonight with no possibility of including a replacement even if we signed Jayden Meghoma on loan again (as has been rumoured). European squad restrictions are typically prohibitive.

Rumours abound that we might see Ashton Scally in the starting line-up, a big test for someone who only finished school in the summer. He’s a highly rated talent but I think starting him tonight would verge on reckless.

Knowing that the manager likes to be cautious, if Dujon Sterling is fit I think he will start at left back, he’s played there many times before and even though he lacks a bit of attacking zip playing on the wrong side, he’s a capable defender and experienced (especially when compared to Scally).

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An Ivorian Goodbye

A departure that seemed to happen incredibly quickly was that of Mohammed Diomande. The Ivorian signed for Çorum in Turkey for 4.5 million pounds. I must confess that I had never heard of his new club before the rumours started.

Our number 10 divided opinion during his time at Rangers, some are delighted to see him go, others (including me) are less happy to see us losing our only forward thinking midfielder.

I suspect that given the loss of Chermiti’s potential windfall and the talk of spending big money on a new winger (we will get to him), that Diomande was simply one of the few players left that we could sell for a fee rather than having a loan with option or releasing him.

So, to his time at Rangers. A January signing in the Clement era, Diomande arrived with a big billing as a product of the Right To Dream academy in Ghana who had cut his teeth at FC Nordsjaelland, in Denmark.

Technically gifted, forward-thinking and surprisingly hard to wrestle off the ball given his diminutive stature, Dio made a great first impression off the bench against Aberdeen. Taking the ball in tight spaces and flicking it over defenders, leaving them mystified.

He continued to impress in his early appearances, a right footed piledriver from the edge of the box set Rangers on their way to a 3-0 win in Perth that put them top of the table for the first time that season. This was followed up with a clever low strike on his left foot against Hearts in a 5-0 thrashing on his first start in the league at Ibrox.

That proved to be his only goal contributions in his first half-season at the club, but his ability to turn away and evade pressure alongside his bravery on the ball ensured he was largely seen as a successful signing despite Rangers slipping up and handing the title to Celtic with a loss at Ross County and a goalless draw against Dundee.

Much like the rest of the team, Diomande struggled for consistency in the following two seasons. In a similar way to Cyriel Dessers, he found himself a lightning rod for criticism whenever he would have a poor showing. His bad games would be more noticeable as he never hid and desperately wanted the ball. If he had one of his days when his decision making was poor and his touch was off, he seemed to become the bastion of all the team’s problems.

In reality, managers always want a player on the pitch who wants the ball no matter how poorly they are playing. I think the real issue was the lack of players who wanted to take responsibility alongside or instead of Diomande.

The fact that when the team has had very few attacking ideas this season it’s been the Ivorian stepping up and trying to make things happen does not surprise me, and it fills me with fear for tonight a little bit. Who is ready to step up?

So, farewell Diomande, I will miss watching you on your good days. And we will always have that goal at Celtic Park and your 45 minute cameo that changed the game there last season.

Spread Your Wings

At the Rangers AGM the other day, we were promised significant new signings, alongside many empty platitudes. It seems the owners are trying to deliver on that front as it’s all but confirmed that Couhaib Driouech will join the club from Eredivisie champions PSV Eindhoven.

Born in the Netherlands, but of Moroccan descent, the left winger has spent much of his time on the bench in the last two years. Signed for around 4 million euros, Driouech seemed to break into the side towards the end of last season, finishing the campaign with a very impressive 4 goals and 6 assists across just 946 league minutes.

The Moroccan sees a move to Rangers as a chance to step out of the shadow of his teammates in the Netherlands and become the main man in Glasgow. Many will have first heard of the winger as he bagged a brace at Anfield in the UCL as PSV ran out 4-1 winners over Liverpool.

Although usually aiming to come inside on his preferred right foot, Driouech is capable of going on the outside and delivering cross and cut backs on his left. I suspect the winger’s 1 v 1 ability is what makes him an attractive signing to Rangers, similar to Daisuke Yokota on the other wing.

When facing deep blocks and men behind the ball, you need a winger who is happpy to dribble and try and beat his man.

Driouech also scored a number of goals arriving into the box from his wide position to attack crosses or knockdowns from the other side of the pitch. Another crucial ability when trying to break teams down, and one that Rangers have lacked in their wide players since Vaclav Cerny played for the team.

There are some misgivings around the transfer as PSV fans seem very happy to see the back of the mercurial Moroccan. But I honestly think that could be down to the winger being the wrong fit for the Dutch champions, there’s many players that are waved away out of clubs before finding a home elsewhere. Crucially, despite his poor perception from fans, Driouech still had plenty of impact and end product during his time at the club.

Our new winger won’t be able to join the squad for tonight, but I expect we will see his debut at the weekend.

Take The Initiative

With all that put to one side, Rangers still have a game to win tonight, and make no mistake, they need to win.

The first leg in Poland was disastrous, the only saving grace was that we didn’t lose by more goals and give ourselves a mountain to climb. We are instead in a position where a win by one goal takes us to extra time, and we just need a two goal win to progress.

Sounds easy, until you consider the fact that we don’t even have a win this season, let alone one by two clear goals. Tonight would be a great time to start changing that habit.

I’ve got no idea what kind of team to expect, we’ve lost our forward thinking midfielder in Diomande, so if we are looking to attack from the off that may necessitate the inclusion of Aasgaard.

Curtis and Gassama have been inconsistent in recent games, although that isn’t a criticism of the former as you’d expect that at his age and level of experience. Curtis may get the nod given he played all over the pitch on Sunday. Gassama did create our goal though, him finding form would be really convenient.

Shankland should start, whether McInnes decides to give him a partner or not is the big selection question (enjoyed that rhyme). Naderi hasn’t shown much in his appearances this season, he and Shankland don’t seem to have any kind of link-up play between them. Miovski hasn’t even been on the pitch for a minute so it seems like he’s far down the pecking order.

Given the lack of choice in that department we might see us start in a 4-3-3 like we did in Poland. I’d be more inclined to field Aasgaard in the midfield three so starting one of the aforementioned left wingers will be required.

In defence I’d be surprised if we didn’t see Sterling come in for the stricken Rommens. At right back we will likely see McCrorie if he’s fit to start, so we can say goodbye to exciting play amongst our full backs.

Dragojevic will hopefully continue in the team, in midfield ideally, his time at right back didn’t really work.

My speculation hasn’t really been on the money this season, so no doubt we will see a back three with 3 strikers playing or something ridiculous.

What Difference Does It Make?

After I preached a return to basics in my preview, it seemed that Derek McInnes had gone in the opposite direction when his line-up was announced.

At first, like many, I thought we were fielding a back three with Curtis and Yokota as wing-backs. Certainly would have been a sign of ambition and belief that we could dominate the ball.

Instead it was a back four with our big money midfield signing playing right back. I sound quite cynical after the fact, but deploying a defensively secure midfielder at fullback is something that elite managers have done at the very top level, so it wasn’t a completely crazy idea from McInnes.

As I’d advocated for some changes to the system, I wasn’t displeased to see that the manager had tried to do so. Some red flags remained though.

I have been banging the drum about pairing up the correct profiles in midfield and that issue reared it’s ugly head again. Nico Raskin started for the first time this season alongside Cammy Devlin.

It is my opinion, perhaps controversially, that Raskin is simply a much better version of Cammy Devlin. Both are energetic, aggressive, very capable of winning the ball in midfield and moving it on, neither able to control a game from deep or set the tempo and crucially, neither are huge influences in the final third. Raskin has shown he may have a future as a number 8 attacking the box, but I don’t think he’s able to do that in a midfield pivot.

Despite the Belgian’s high stock due to impressive World Cup performances and a positive individual season at Rangers, he has always struggled when asked to play in a pivot and provide the spark in midfield. That’s not to criticise him too heavily, he’s just not that kind of player, it’s why he’s normally been paired with Diomande during his Rangers career.

So when I saw that he had been paired with Devlin, who is even more limited on the ball, there were alarm bells ringing.

Barbarism Begins At Home

I didn’t get much of a feel for the game in the first 10 minutes, mostly because I was running late and arrived at the pub to watch the referee being sent to the monitor to look at a potential foul and penalty to Hibs.

My jacket was barely down on the chair as I heard Michael Stewart remonstrating loudly that it was never a penalty. I have since seen the penalty decision hundreds of time on social media, it’s not great.

It’s soft, it’s a classic case of a bit of wrestling in the box, it shouldn’t happen and if this is a new directive to stamp down on it, then fair enough. But I suspect this is just an isolated case of the VAR team taking too close a look at one incident and feeling that it’s a penalty as a result.

The referee pointed to the spot and booked Dragojevic for his wrestling. Josh Campbell sent Pandur the wrong way and we were a goal down for the second league game running.

I thought that we responded fairly well, the tempo was raised and we passed the ball with purpose, this did turn into a lot of moving the ball around the edge and waiting for an opportunity. One exchange saw us work the ball to Dragojevic who sliced his effort wide from distance.

My only positives from the whole game were the performances of Yokota and Makhanya. Some signings that actually look worth the fees we paid for them.

Yokota seemed to create something every time he had the ball, twisting and turning away from his marker and looking to drive into dangerous areas before picking out a pass.

In what was probably our best chance of the game, the Japanese winger left the full back for dead before skipping into the box, he waited patiently before finding Chermiti with a pass. It looked like the big number 9 had a tap in but his goalbound effort was cleared off the line with some desperate defending.

That was Chermiti’s last contribution as he was forced off with a serious knee injury shortly afterwards. Given the rumours swirling around about big offers coming in from Turkey for the Portuguese striker, it’s a serious setback for both him and the club.

Hibs were fairly content with sitting in and soaking up the Rangers pressure, with the aim of striking on the break. One of the reasons they struggled to get any joy on the break was Makhanya.

Our new centre back looked the picture of composure any time the ball was near him. Winning tackles and calmly moving the ball into good areas without fear. How refreshing to see a centre back who is so composed on the ball. As promising a debut as you could ask for.

In what must be the most damning indictment of our transfer policy this summer, we spent the majority of the second half with Findlay Curtis playing right back after Dragojevic made way for Diomande.

James Tavernier leaving Rangers did not come as a surprise, he announced he was leaving in March. It is now August, the right back signed in summer wasn’t trusted to start a game at home to Hibs and instead a centre midfielder and then a winger played there.

I know plenty of people have issues with James Tavernier and his time at Rangers, I’ve been critical of him in this very blog. But for the club to think that we could lose a right back capable of taking us from our own third into the final third with incredible consistency, and then just not replace him properly, is incredible.

Rangers certainly had chances in the second half, Shankland had an effort saved onto the bar and there were countless blocks in the box as Hibs defended with their lives. But it felt like we were creating chances due to the monopoly we had on the ball rather than due to a consistent strategy.

Our equaliser came courtesy of Gassama, introduced for Yokota in the second half. He sat his full back down and sent a low cross in that was diverted into the back of the Hibs net by Chaiwa. Rangers were probably good value for their equaliser, despite not being particularly impressive.

All that was left was for us to go on and win the game, I wouldn’t have been too happy with the method, but I’d have taken 3 points. Instead we got zero.

Rangers had their best chance to win the game as Shankland had a brilliant header saved, the rebound fell to McCrorie on the byline and he elected to loft a cross towards the back post when Rangers had bodies inside the six yard box.

Gassama then had an effort saved, Hibs collected the loose ball and kept cool under pressure, the ball was zipped into the forwards who seemed to have all the time in the world to get towards the area. Callum Wright saw his effort deflect past Pandur and Rangers got what they deserved, nothing.

Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now

So here we are again, maybe 2/3 games from writing off another season for the third year running. Not had too much success on this blog have we?

I’m not going to ask the fans for more patience, Rangers fans have been patient enough.

Derek McInnes was as defiant as you’d expect in his post-match press conference. He’s not shying away from responsibility and he once again talked about needing help and getting players in.

We have been linked with another exciting winger from the Eredivisie and that move may happen. I do think that it’s a waste of time if we are shackling them in a 4-4-2 with two midfielders who can’t pass though.

Necessity is the mother of invention though, perhaps with no Chermiti and Naderi flattering to deceive so far this season, we might see a formation with 1 striker and more room for the wide men to thrive.

I would certainly enjoy seeing something different before it all goes to waste. Thursday’s game looms large and I am honestly not sure what to expect from this Rangers team.

Fresh Ideas?

Watching Thursday's game back was a real test of my mental endurance, once really was enough. But I watched it to try confirm if my thoughts on the opening exchanges weren't tinged with optimism, and actually had some truth to them.

I had spoken about how in the first 12 or so minutes, Rangers had some zip to their play and seemed to have an idea about how they wanted to attack.

Watching it back, I believe there was some confirmation bias at play here. Because we got a goal from good inventive play, and seemed to be playing well, I think my eyes were telling me that there were patterns of play at the heart of things.

That won't seem like a massive revelation, given how quickly things unravelled after the equaliser. But I think it's important to know if we have anything to build on, the answer? No.

So what does that mean for the next line-up? It means McInnes has to really think about what he wants from his team, rather than just picking competitive profiles.

Dragojevic seemed usable on Thursday and he cost us an obscene amount of money. So I think start him as the deepest midfielder. Ask him to drop in between the centre backs and control our build up play.

Then field Devlin and Diomande. Devlin gives you energy and ball winning, having him higher means he doesn't need to worry about covering gaps and sitting off.

Diomande is our only midfielder who can turn and have us facing the right direction on the pitch, his selection is a necessity at this stage.

For the front three I genuinely don't know. My instinct says we'd be better going back to basics. Curtis and Yokota on the wings. Ask them to get on the inside and outside, to link up and provide service for… Lawrence Shankland. Chermiti has way more dynamism to his game than the newly anointed Captain. But Shankland should give us box presence and finishing that we will need today.

Playing inverted wingers should allow the fullbacks space on the outside too. Which means we should be starting our new centre back to allow Sterling to play on the right.

So the game plan should be simple, in build up have Dragojevic drop in and the full backs push up. Move the ball into one of the two midfielders stationed higher up the pitch, ask them to work the ball wide either in behind or in triangles to get our wide players in on the outside. Then ask them to find Shankland and hopefully the opposite winger and midfielder arriving in the box.

I'm not suggesting this should be our long term plan, but we should be realistic about what we can do with the players we have available.

Going back to basics, 4-3-3, get it in the wide areas and look for the striker. Let's not over estimate what we are capable of.

For me, it's got to be as simple as that.

Hibs have enjoyed a positive start to their European campaign, but equally they will likely be fatigued as a result (I'm aware we will also be fatigued).

We are definitely better than this Hibs team, so let's get revenge for the last time we played them at Ibrox and get out first three points in the league on the board.

Cutting Shapes

When the line-up was released for the game, I was impressed. It seemed that Derek McInnes had recognised the issues that a 4-4-2 variation may pose, and opted for a 4-3-3 with Aasgaard and Yokota flanking Chermiti, and Shankland left on the bench.

The midfield 3 possessed a combination of physicality and technical ability with Neil sitting behind Chukwuani and Diomande. And the backline was the safer option on paper with McCrorie in at right back and Sterling tucking in.

What is becoming very clear to me is that I need to stop getting excited at line-ups this season, as bar a bright start, there wasn’t anything to write home about.

Said bright start saw us winning the ball high and moving it into good attacking areas. There was some movement and runs in behind, and we seemed to have a general idea of what we wanted to do.

The opening goal came after Diomande and Rommens combined well, the Ivorian sending the Belgian on one of his trademark overlapping runs with a great ball inside the fullback. Rommens crossed low into a good area and although Chermiti couldn’t make contact, the defender was on hand to tuck the ball into his own net.

We looked set to build on that start, there was ambition in our play that has been missing all season. Although our positive play never seemed likely to create any great chances, you’d hope that may have built up with repetition.

Instead we found ourselves pegged back by the home side, a fairly innocuous in-swinging cross was played into the box, and in making a poor attempt to play the ball, Fernandez helped it along past a flat-footed Pandur.

That felt soft, but given the pattern of the game, not a goal that should have caused us to lose our heads so badly.

But, this team continues to perform feats of wonder by capitulating, I don’t think we saw a genuine attacking pattern of play from the moment Rangers conceded the equaliser.

We stopped taking care of the ball, started losing duels and letting passes bypass the press. All of that contributed to the home side growing in confidence, they started to have dangerous moves with the wrong decision or poor execution stopping them taking the lead.

Dan Neil and Thelo Aasgaard exemplified the dip in performance as they combined to give the ball away on an attack when Rangers had men committed forward and McCrorie in acres of space out wide.

I had a very bad feeling as the Poles began to break at pace, we were backtracking but still had enough men to deal with the low cross that entered the area. We would have, had Fernandez not slipped, Imaz then saw his effort saved and the rebound tucked home by Szmyt, getting his second of the game.

This second goal was no wake-up call for Rangers, they continued to plod along and struggled to impact the game in the first half. I was desperate for the whistle.

Locking the Stable Door after the Horse has Bolted

McInnes attempted to wrestle back control of the game by introducing Raskin, Curtis and Devlin for Yokota, Neil and Chukwuani.

Although these changes resulted in more possession and territory for Rangers, the key issue around where our goal would come from remained.

Many may not like the comparison, but I was reminded of watching a Philippe Clement Rangers team. There was no game plan, no system that would allow us to create and score a goal, instead we tried to just get the ball to Diomande and hoped he would create something.

Aasgaard was back to his regular programming as he looked ponderous on the ball and was slack when trying to move it on. Such a great move turning down offers for him when his value was high.

I only have two notes written down for the entire second half:

Waiting on moments of inspiration

Don’t know the plan at all.

There’s alarm bells ringing already for Derek McInnes, we saw these issues with Clement and Beale and it never seemed to improve. Both won games and had great runs due to individuals playing well, but when given the chance to implement their attacking vision, we saw nothing positive on the park.

It’s too early to write off any manager or player, so don’t think I am doing that. But for all his flaws, and there were many, we saw a clear style and plan very quickly under the previous manager. So we know these players can implement a plan, I just wonder if they haven’t been given one.

“We’ve beat ourselves tonight”

The manager was critical of his players and the performance in the post-match interview. Perhaps the only redeeming factor of the manager so far is his honesty in his assessment of the performances.

Although, Derek never stops to question his attacking set-up. Instead he is determined that we handed the game to the home side (not wrong) and that the players “just stopped” doing the right things.

There’s a mentality issue in this team, but I don’t think I saw enough signs in the first 12 minutes to suggest that we had some fantastic attacking plan that was going to rip the Poles apart.

I don’t want this criticism to be misconstrued either, this isn’t an easy task for any manager. No one can come in and sort this team out with as few transfers as we’ve had, in a month or two. But I want to look and see some real positive ideas and signs of trying something new.

I don’t want to be getting deja vu writing my match notes as I remember talking about “just giving the ball to Diomande” multiple times under Philippe Clement.

Lots to think about ahead of our first home league game on Sunday, against a team that got a very credible result in Europe while we struggled, Hibernian.

Fly, Fly Away Double Eagle

Rangers remembered that they are able to make transfers this week, very refreshing.

First of all the club said goodbye to Nedim Bajrami. The Albanian international was signed from Sassuolo for a few million back in 2024, under Philippe Clement. Although not someone that was tearing it up in Italy, the hope was that he would add some technical quality and creativity to a team that was lacking in both aspects. Fast forward two years and we are still a team lacking in technical quality and creativity, so that about sums up the success of that transfer.

In an attempt to see the best in both Bajrami and Clement. I argued that his time playing off the wing was an attempt to use a “facilitator” type creative player to link our attacking play without necessarily providing the finishing touch or final pass.

As time passed, it was pretty clear that Bajrami wasn’t really suited to doing this, and that Clement was just shoving a player who cost a significant fee into the team and hoping for the best.

There were glimpses of quality and fight from the Albanian, he even looked set to have a mini revival in the team after a barnstorming performance away at Tannadice under Danny Rohl last season. This proved to be another false dawn for the creative midfielder.

He joins Al Taawoun in Saudi Arabia on loan with an option to buy. Early reports suggested this would be an obligation, but the “option” makes me nervous. We only just got rid of Ben Davies because of clubs not being willing to activate an option. But that will be next summer’s problem.

Wallet Found, Please Return to Rangers FC

The ‘replacement’ for Bajrami was in the door quickly as Daisuke Yokota signed permanently from Hannover 96. The club have said it’s a three-year deal with an additional year option.

Our new Japanese winger was even registered in time to join tonight’s squad, so we might even get a look the 26-year-old, who spent a portion of his career in Poland so will have a good feel for the atmosphere and environment.

Yokota is a left-footed winger who has spent much of his career operating off the right. From looking at some clips and having a quick read of what people who watch him have to say, he’s a smart winger who manages to have a consistent impact in limited minutes on the pitch. He’s spent a lot of his career as a substitute so I wonder if that’s the role we may see him occupy at Ibrox.

He’s moved around a lot, Rangers will be his 6th club since 2021. On the one hand that means that he maybe struggles to establish himself, but on the other it means he’s very comfortable going to a new country and having an impact. His stats have remained remarkably consistent across multiple spells, which isn’t easy.

At the moment, I suspect our new signing isn’t far from starting in a team that’s lacking dynamism on the wings. Hopefully we get a good look at him in Poland.

Borky Away

Keen-eyed readers of the blog will have already made the connection between my second name and the country of today’s opponents. Although on most occasions this wouldn’t extend beyond the novelty of a link to the country as a whole, today’s opponents are more directly linked due to their origins.

In my research I discovered (it’s pretty much the first thing about the club’s history on any website) that they were formed by a Polish military regiment that had served overseas in the First World War.

A nice link as my Polish grandfather settled in the UK as a result of his service in the Polish Liberation Army in the Second World War. Nice little symmetry.

But enough about me, the question is, can they play football?

They can, very well in fact. Polish champions as recently as 2024, they have been in and around the top of the league for a consistent period.

In Europe they’ve successfully qualified for the Conference League in each of the last two seasons. Indeed they were only knocked out by Fiorentina last season despite winning the second leg 4-2 (lost 5-4 on aggregate). While in the previous season they made it to the quarter final before losing to eventual finalists Real Betis.

Not an opponent to be taken lightly, especially given Rangers have managed 1 goal from open play in their last 3 matches.

We are well matched against the Poles in terms of shape, they tend to deploy a 4-4-2 or a 4-1-4-1 formation depending on the opponent. That’s where the similarities end however. They play the shape very aggressively, pressing high and looking to win the ball in good positions.

On the ball they tend to sit with their double pivot and a rest of the attack becomes a front four. In build-up that means they sit with a 4-2 shape to play out from the back, drawing the press before a winger drops in to receive the ball and get the ball up the pitch.

Reading that makes it pretty clear that this a big test for Rangers from a tactical perspective.

In terms of personnel, the home team have both their record appearance holder and record goal scorer in the team. Taras Romanczuk is their midfield general and has made more appearances than anyone else for the north-eastern Polish side. While Jesús Imaz prefers the Polish climate to his native Spain as he’s notched up 96 league goals at the club since arriving in 2022.

Stick or Twist?

Looking at Derek McInnes’ record in Europe makes for grim reading, however you have to be mindful of the quality of the teams he was managing. No one was expecting big things from Aberdeen or Kilmarnock. Indeed, last season’s runners up Hearts limped out of their UCL qualifiers after a 6-0 aggregate defeat to FK Sturm Graz (remember them?). The lack of quality outside of the top 2 in Scotland has always been ruthlessly exposed in Europe.

Despite our inactivity in the transfer market, Rangers are still favourites on paper. But reading about how Jagiellonia Białystok like to bait the press and play around it, attacking with pace on the break, fills me with dread. I can’t think of a worse team for Rangers to play right now.

A sliver of light, is that we’ve seen Derek McInnes disrupt good footballing sides many times in his managerial career. That must be the order of business tonight.

If we deploy a 4-4-2 shape as we’ve become accustomed to, then I’d want to see the wingers pushed high onto the fullbacks and the front two screening the double pivot of the home side.

That should force the centre backs into playing difficult passes to their wide men and forwards or make the forwards drop in and compress the pitch.

If we had any pace in the team I’d suggest looking to get behind the oppositions high line, but Gassama is the only quick player in the team and he doesn’t really do running in behind.

In terms of team selection, Ben Godfrey is only out for 3-4 weeks instead of the big layoff feared, but we still don’t have him tonight, could it be the time to throw in Makhanya? I suspect that our manager’s cautious nature will see him deploy Sterling as a centre back with Ross McCrorie as the right back. Not that I want us throwing caution to the wind away in Europe.

Outside of that, I’d probably prefer to see the 4-2-3-1 shape that was deployed against West Ham. Using Chermiti to stretch the defence and hold the ball up with Aasgaard as the 10. But given Shankland’s captaincy, he will need to start so that puts a stop to that thread.

Get something from the game, take it home and try win it with hopefully an additional signing or two next week. That’s all I ask.

Ambition Or Hubris?

The line-up was slightly different than most expected. Despite no notable impact on the game during his time on the pitch in pre-season, McInnes opted for Ryan Naderi up front with Shankland.

Quite what Chermiti did to be dropped I'm not sure. It looked a tactical misstep from the off and it's disappointing to see it from a manager known for planning his tactics for different opponents.

Most of us expected to see Aasgaard and Diomande out wide, or maybe Findlay Curtis. Instead Djeidi Gassama started off the left, with Diomande partnering Cammy Devlin in midfield. Aasgaard was loosely deployed on the right hand side.

I was initially pleased to see the manager starting with a more ambitious approach. However the sight of a diminutive midfield pairing did make me think back to the Clement era when Raskin and Diomande were asked to cover an incredible amount of ground at the base of midfield.

In those games we never saw the best of either midfielder as they were given too much of a defensive burden. And if one abandoned his post to join the attack, the other would be hopelessly overwhelmed on the counter.

Sadly that became a theme for much of the game. I like Devlin a lot, his energy is very impressive and he covers plenty of ground. But such an aggressive ball-winner who wants to get to his opponent early can then leave a gap in midfield to exploit.

It's why I had no issues with the deployment of two more defensively minded players at the base of midfield. Deploying one of Devlin, Neil, Dragojevic or Chukwuani away from home would likely leave us looking a little bit short. That was exactly what happened.

Having two obvious question marks in your first league game as Rangers manager isn't the best start I have to say.

Never-ending Story

Rangers began the game looking quite aggressive, forcing some turnovers and being happy to go direct into Naderi and Shankland with long balls.

An approach that had mixed success, after about 15 minutes I was conscious that we hadn't seen any attacking moves from Rangers.

Not a huge concern in a tough game like last night's, but when you have a more attacking line-up, you want to see us have some ideas about playing and scoring goals.

Instead as the half wore on, Dundee United grew in confidence. Devlin and the two centre backs were often caught high as they jumped to try and win the ball.

The home side had plenty of joy getting in behind as we looked a little bit lost about what we were meant to be doing defensively.

No one was surprised to see the Terrors take the lead. A long ball wasn't dealt with and deflected into the path of a Dundee United attacker, they charged in behind and the ball across was tapped home with a rather miscued side foot by Larose. They all count though.

I mentioned how important it was that we didn't fall behind in the preview and I also talked about opening day games being about character. Despite my horror at the scoreline, I was interested to see how this manager and team would respond.

The answer was not with any real urgency, they upped the tempo a bit, but didn't really threaten beyond launching a few more balls into the area.

I expected changes at half time, and wasn't surprised to see the ineffective Gassama withdrawn for Dan Neil.

Suddenly with two natural sitters we gained a bit more control of the game. Although having a more solid base in midfield exposed how poorly the backline was playing.

Chermiti was also introduced for Naderi and looked far more effective than the German. Even if he wasn't exactly pulling up trees.

With a more balanced team we started to create chances, although looked likely to be caught on the break as we committed more bodies forward in search of the equaliser.

Our equaliser came courtesy of a fine strike from the influential Thelo Aasgaard. The Norwegian had been Rangers’ only real attacking threat as he tried to create from across the pitch with mixed success.

Picking up the ball on the edge of the area, the Norwegian dropped the shoulder and shifted the ball onto his left foot before firing into the top corner. It was a high quality strike, I hope we see more moments like that from the Norwegian this season!

Despite our equaliser, we mainly huffed and puffed looking for the winner. We lost Ben Godfrey to injury frustratingly. Huge howls of derision in the pub when that happened.

Dundee United had a golden chance to win as they had a one on one with Pandur after we looked stretched again. But he elected to try and chip the Croatian, who caught his effort easily.

The full time whistle went and there were looks of disgust as Rangers failed to win on the opening day again.

Same Old Rangers

New signings (some), a new manager and yet, the same results and manners.

It's way too early to be throwing in the towel on McInnes. He's been sold short by the owners as we are still lacking any significant attacking signings.

But I've not been too enthused by the attacking set up in pre-season and it felt like the chickens came home to roost last night.

I want to take some time to pick over the result and performance. Right now it feels like we've lost a lot of the positivity around the club, some attacking signings could bring that back.

That's all for now, folks.

Makhan Moves

Rangers have finally made more moves in the transfer market by bringing in Olwethu Makhanya from Philadelphia Union. The South African has played in America for the last 3 years after leaving his native country in which he played for Stellenbosch.

Makhanya is a centre back, comfortable on the left or right of defence. I have not been watching the MLS recently and I’m trying to pretend not to be scarred from the signing of Jose Cifuentes, but the word on the street is that Makhanya has been a top performer in the league during his time there.

In the clips I’ve seen he showcases a lot of composure on the ball and is very keen to evade the press and step into any available space to play. That will be the aspect of his game the club are hoping he can translate to Scotland. In big games especially you want to see your centre back comfortable playing against a high press.

I expect we won’t see much of him tonight given Fernandez and Godfrey have started all the pre-season games together. Sterling is also an experienced option in that position.

Short a Signing

The elephant in the room is that once again we were told about having two new faces in the door for tonight’s game and we only have one. I know that reports suggest our business isn’t done by a long way, but this is the kind of game where new attacking dynamic talent can be the difference in getting a result.

I’ll get into the pressure riding on the game in a moment, but I think the club is not giving the new manager the best possible platform to get off on the right foot with the support.

If the signing were announced right now, I don’t even know if there would be time to register him anyway.

Shank-lands Captaincy as Antman Departs

After giving the armband to every player in the squad over the course of a training camp and pre-season, Derek McInnes has appointed Lawrence Shankland as the new club captain of Rangers Football Club.

I mentioned that the club were making a very obvious shift in the leadership dynamic by bringing in the profiles that we’ve seen so far, it’s no surprise that one of the new signings is taking the armband.

Shankland has matured throughout his career in Scottish Football from young hotshot striker to seasoned number 9 who has a positive impact on his team’s playing style.

Given his childhood support for Rangers and determination from him to sign for the club over his career, he certainly understands the club and knows what it takes to represent it.

I wish him all the best and hope that we see him lifting many a trophy this season.

Speaking of starting something new, Oliver Antman has left Rangers football club for a fee of around 4 and a half million pounds, handing the club a tiny profit as he joins RSC Anderlecht in Belgium.

When I saw that he was rumoured to leave I must admit I had a little chuckle to myself. About 300 words in the last blog about how the Finn’s future could lie at wingback, then he buggers off to Europe a few days later. You couldn’t make it up.

Antman departs with the best wishes of the fans. He started incredibly brightly, I witnessed his dazzling debut at home to Viktoria Plzen in the flesh and was blown away. Like most of the team he swiftly lost confidence under Russell Martin and was promptly injured before the arrival of Danny Rohl. Despite a few bright sub appearances against Kilmarnock and Falkirk, Antman never threatened to hold down a place in the side.

Getting a profit on a player who hasn’t been a great fit for the club is a great move, hopefully we see similar with the other rumoured departures.

Tannadice Tales

Tonight’s opponents have been tricky customers in recent seasons, we conspired to drop points against the Arabs in 2 of our 3 fixtures last season. Conceding 2 goals in each match too.

The Tangerines have certainly invested in their side with 10 players in the door already, 8 of them permanent.

Despite that investment, they looked to be making hard work of the League Cup group stage after needing a last minute penalty to beat Stirling Albion (after being truly awful for most of the game) and then losing 1-0 to Montrose.

Jim Goodwin teams are never electrifying but the Terrors did save some face with comfortable 3 and 4 nil wins in their other games.

The problem for Rangers is that the home side are match sharp, 4 competitive games into their season while we have had a Spanish training camp and two pre-season games to get into the swing of things.

With the added factor of home advantage, Dundee United will come out swinging and looking to draw blood against this untested Rangers team.

Your Move, Derek

What can Rangers do to ensure they get off on the right foot? I alluded to it earlier, but the last time we won a game on the opening day of the season was in 2022.

It was a 2-1 win at Livingston, coming back from a goal down with an equaliser from Scott Arfield and then a brilliant free kick from James Tavernier sealed the three points.

Rangers weren’t particularly fluent on that day and they struggled to break down a home side with a one-goal lead to defend. There’s a lesson there, be disciplined and defend on the front foot, the goals we conceded in the games against Dundee United last season were a mixture of screamers and poor defending. We simply can’t afford to fall behind tonight.

Another lesson is that winning on the opening day is about character as much as about playing style. I hate to talk in cliches and idioms but I don’t expect us to play any elegant football tonight, the home side won’t let us. What I do expect to see, is a team out there determined to fight for every ball and yard on the pitch, we have the quality to score goals, let’s give ourselves the best platform to do it, and get things started off on the right foot.

The News from Number 10

After I suggested that we might be best placed trying to maintain a bit of rhythm, the manager of course did the opposite and saw the game as a chance to experiment. Which, in hindsight, produced a far better spectacle with more talking points.

Rangers started the game in a 4-2-3-1 system, Naderi leading the line on his own with Thelo Aasgaard as the number 10. Gassama and Curtis on the flanks with Diomande and Devlin rounding out the midfield.

We started the game positively again, Diomande robbed the West Ham midfield from their own kick off, his pass was poorly executed however. It set the pattern of the opening exchanges, we pressed high and sat on the edge of the opposition area.

Cammy Devlin was a big positive again, his energy and reading of the game allowed us to pen West Ham into the box, any attacks were swiftly snuffed out by the Australian and the ball was swiftly worked back into attacking areas.

I thought we had a much clearer game plan than Wednesday. Whenever we won the ball we used either Aasgaard on the left or Diomande on the right to provide an overload to allow the wingers to face their men one on one. The fullbacks were able to under and overlap very effectively.

Indeed, the opening 15 minutes seemed to produce more shots than the entire 90 minutes on Wednesday.

The quality was still lacking though, Gassama shot when we had men over more than once, Curtis and Sterling struggled to turn their good positions into significant contributions. Naderi looked a bit isolated and didn’t have any chances during his time on the pitch.

As the half wore on, West Ham got into their rhythm and began to dominate possession. We struggled to get out and our long balls were swiftly picked off by the physically imposing duo at the back for the visitors.

What I found really impressive was that West Ham didn’t create a single chance despite their dominance and territory. We kept them at arms length and any cross they did manage to direct into our area was comfortably headed away. Organised defending has been a feature of many of our many European wins in the last 8 years, a return to those principles can only be welcomed.

Wing(back)man

The manager shuffled his pack at half time, and I assumed with the introduction of two strikers, a winger for a winger and a midfielder for a midfielder that we might be going back to the 4-4-2 shape.

I was mistaken, it became clear from the first five minutes of the half that we had moved into a back 3. Something akin to a 3-4-1-2 or 3-5-2.

The biggest excitement for me was that we saw Oliver Antman deployed as a wing back. I joked that Derek McInnes might be a reader of the blog after his comments the other night, I’m starting to believe it could be the case. I harp on about it, but I was saying that Antman would make a great wingback in my preview for the Club Brugge away game when it looked like we would deploy a back 3.

Our pressing shape was extremely aggressive as we tried to go man-to-man across the pitch. This was the most exciting period of the game as we consistently won the ball in great positions or forced them to go long under pressure.

There were oceans of space for Rommens and Antman to run into on the outside due to West Ham’s narrow shape. Our best move of the game came after Chermiti took the ball down on the break, found Antman on the right. The Finn shifted the ball inside to Diomande and his driven pass found Aasgaard, who spun his man effortlessly and was fouled while bearing down on the West Ham goal.

Of course, he was injured by this foul and was promptly subbed off moments later, it was fun while it lasted.

Chukwuani was introduced for the Norwegian and we lost a bit of our expansiveness, which I think was a real shame as we had started to build something akin to a head of steam.

Blank

Sadly, we never quite capitalised on having the ball in some good areas, this was reflected in the manager’s post-match interview:

I am just disappointed that we never made more of some good positions, either with our final cross; we were turning down chances to shoot and try and put them under a bit more pressure.

I’d hasten to agree with McInnes, we’ve improved our play in the first two thirds of the pitch, but the difference maker this season will be what we can do in the final third. I haven’t seen anything too exciting yet, but hopefully that’s just down to a lack of sharpness.

Thelo landed on his shoulder a bit awkwardly, but we think he will be okay for Friday, and Cammy took a kick in his calf, but again I've been assured he'll be fine for the game.

Aasgaard looked quite sharp again yesterday, so I really hope he makes it back in time for Friday, especially if we don’t get the signings we want in the door. Devlin has been fantastic and I suspect in the cauldron of Tannadice, we may really need him.

The manager alluded to more signings coming in the door, two were mentioned, with one due in the next 48 hours. I hope both are attacking signings, cause we really need a bit more dynamism if we want to deploy any of these systems.

That’s all for today, Friday is the big one and I am intrigued as to what might happen before then.

Until then, have a good week.

Dinner is Serbed

Following Derek McInnes’ interview after Wednesday’s game in which he alluded to some new signings coming in, yesterday saw us announce the long rumoured addition of Vanja Dragojevic.

The 20-year-old has joined Rangers on a permanent transfer from FK Partizan (Partizan Belgrade to most of us) for a rumoured fee of around 5 million euros. Although there’s some conflicting reports on that front, it’s clear that we’ve invested significantly to bring in the defensive midfielder.

Dragojevic operates largely as a number 6 with a strong positional style of defending. From the clips I’ve seen of him, he doesn’t eat the ground up and chase down loose balls, preferring to hold his position and read the game before timing his tackles.

His real quality is his passing range, you don’t have to look far to see hundreds of clips of the Serbian picking the ball up in front of his defence and pinging a long ball in behind. Crucially, that requires space to be available and runners in behind, neither of which Rangers have in abundance currently.

Another very prominent positional choice from Dragojevic that should ensure he fits into the manager’s system is that he is very comfortable dropping inbetween the centre backs to form a back 3 during build up.

This was a big feature of Wednesday’s game, with Dan Neil taking up the deeper role and using the ball efficiently without really playing progressive passes. Clearly McInnes sees that role as one for the incoming signing to fill long-term.

I’m operating on very limited data (the Wyscout budget at Near and Far towers is taken from the profit column, so it’s currently zero), but from what I can see on Sofascore, Dragojevic averages 2.8 accurate long balls per game. That backs up the eye test in the clips from his games. He also averages 9.6km distance covered per game, for comparison Connor Barron averaged 10.9 last season.

What is encouraging is that Dragojevic played more minutes in all competitions than all his outfield teammates bar one. Availability is the best ability and given our injury struggles in recent seasons, a reliable player who can start every week and play 90 minutes is going to be crucial to achieving anything..

One of the biggest positives of this signing, is that at his young age, Dragojevic has captained FK Partizan and was the vice-captain before being snapped up by Rangers. We all know that this team needed a refresh in the leadership group, signing someone ready to take the lead amongst much older and more experienced colleagues, can only be a boost.

Overall I am happy with this signing given his reputation and profile. However, we are currently drowning in centre midfielders and if Wednesday is anything to go by, we only plan to play two at any given moment. Some sales and signings in attacking positions are desperately needed.

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Missing: One Signing

I certainly think it’ll be at least two in for Sunday’s game and hopefully another one next week.

A quote from the manager after the St Etienne game. It’s obviously not down to him whether we get any signings done. But he seemed pretty confident that we’d get another signing in by tomorrow. There’s been very little in the way of rumours regarding this mystery signing, although we know that the owners like to keep things on the down low.

I wonder if this could be a Emmanuel Fernandez situation and we could see some hints tonight before a transfer is announced tomorrow. I’d like that as we are pretty short in attack and we only have one pre-season game left in which to give the new signings any chance to bed in.

Dundee United away is beginning to loom large and I just hope we make our signings early in the week so that they have a few training sessions to meet their teammates.

Saying that, top quality players don’t need long to adapt.

One rumour I have seen, is the return of Vaclav Cerny. One of the few shining lights in my first season of blog writing, the Czech winger arrived on loan from Wolfsburg and captured the hearts of the fans with consistent attacking flair and a steady supply of great goals across his time here.

The fee suggested to bring the 28-year-old (birthday in October) to Ibrox is an eye-watering 10 million euros. Not exactly loose change, even for a club of Rangers’ financial status.

Clubs at the top make “win now” and “win later” signings. The Czech would fall firmly into the former category. Would we make any money on him? No. Would he improve our attack and add end-product to a front line that misfired across most of last season? Yes. It’s up to the owners to decided if winning now is worth the risk of the outlay and guaranteed financial loss.

I think having a winger who can score, assist and play direct football would be a breath of fresh air. And hey, it’s not MY money.

Visiting Irons

Tomorrow’s opponents arrive from East London, freshly relegated after a disastrous season. I wasn’t keeping too close an eye on their summer window but I expected massive amounts of movement. That hasn’t really come to fruition, two juicy sales totalling approximately 160 million euros aside, they haven’t really been sticking big earners out on loan and trying to sell players to anyone who will open their emails.

I suspect that huge transfer incoming has allowed them to keep a few players they would have expected to sell. In a well-publicised move, Jarrod Bowen signed a reduced deal to help fire the Hammers back up to the Premier League.

As you’d expect, West Ham have no interest in spending any time longer than strictly necessary in the Championship. They need to only look at other relegated clubs to see how dangerous that can be financially. Leicester City’s Premier League title feels like a long time ago now as they prepare for a season in League One, for example.

For Rangers, that means that tomorrow will represent a very tough challenge. Exactly what you want a week before the season starts. Teams that will roll over will teach us nothing about ourselves and the new signings.

New Ideas?

The conundrum for the manager tomorrow is, does he try and find new ideas and combinations for the season ahead? Or does he pick his best eleven and hope they find some fluency before Friday?

On the basis of Wednesday’s game, I’d be inclined to choose the latter option. I don’t know what our best team is right now, but I know that it needs to find a significant increase in attacking threat.

Our back five should remain the same. We don’t have any replacements for the team that started against St Etienne and if Sterling is managing his fitness then I don’t want to rely on him to start on Friday.

Cammy Devlin and Dragojevic should be the basis of a strong partnership. Devlin’s energy is impressive and Dragojevic’s ability should cover for the Australian’s lack of ball-playing ability. The manager will likely continue with Dan Neil however, given he played significant minutes the other night.

In the wide areas, Curtis wasn’t particularly impressive the other night, but he’s direct and likes to get in behind. If Gassama is on the way out the door and that’s why we haven’t seen much of him, there’s no point giving him minutes tomorrow. Diomande will need to continue on the right, much to the annoyance of the people sitting behind me on Wednesday. Antman doesn’t seem to have done enough to get into the manager’s thinking, no minutes against St Etienne is an ominous sign for the Finn.

Up front, we should continue with Shankland and Chermiti, they will start the majority of games this season and they need more minutes to gel. Naderi was bright in his appearance off the bench but he’s not going to displace either player this close to starting the season.

I’m not feeling too optimistic ahead of tomorrow’s game, but our match fitness should give us an edge over the Irons and hopefully that is seen on the pitch.

I’ll be attending in person, so just know that I’ll be sharing any pain/joy with you, potentially mere feet away.