Rangers ran out, 2-1 winners as they faced Hearts at Ibrox in our most recent league game. The stats made it appear this was an easy win for the home side but this match proved exactly why the stats are great for informing but shouldn’t determine your opinion. Despite dominating all the key metrics through the game the reality was we were poor in the final third. I remember thinking at about 80 minutes that we could probably play for another week and not score.
Rangers 2-1 Heart - Match Stats
When Ange Postecoglou started at Celtic they mic’d him up for his first training session and he was heard saying “we never stop.” It became the punchline for many a joke over those initial weeks as he struggled to get his team performing but then it stopped. Over the last few seasons our greatest rivals have shown time and again they have the ability to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. They have rescued points time and again with late goals and it’s seen them pick up multiple trophies in that timespan.
In that same window of time we quite simply haven’t in the majority of games. I’ve often lamented our inclination to close shop and try and cling onto whatever result we have, rather than backing ourselves to push on and get another goal. It was a bug bear when Gio was in charge and it never felt any different under Beale. For two managers who often spoke of the need to “take the handbreak off” it was usually a case of hanging on and dropping deeper in those closing periods of games. Sometimes to protect a slender lead, sometimes to hang on for a draw but I never had a real confidence that we would push on and finish the job.
Handbreak off Football was the mantra
In recent years the mentality of the side has been called into question and the lack of belief in themselves to achieve results in adversity is only one part of this. That match program where our Captain laid out the teams concern when opponents got in their faces, along with Goldson calling out mentality in his post match interviews are both other high profile examples. There have been numerous other occasions where mental strength has been questioned as well and it’s end result is many fans labelling the team or at least certain players as bottlers.
I believe most fans fully expected us to either lose, or at best claim a draw from that game as it wore on. The familiar feeling of struggling to break through following Shankland’s early goal, aligned with Tav missing the first penalty suggested it was going to be “one of those days.”
Then at the end of the game Beaton was invited to review Haring’s shirt pull on Connor Goldson as the hosts lined up at another corner. He duly checked it on the monitor and pointed to the spot. Before we move on I just want to point out it was 100% a penalty, as was the first one that we missed. I’ve seen people questioning if it would have happened at the other end, how did Rangers get two penalties and even the fact it was Beaton who gave us and we were loosing the game but they all seem to forget one small detail. It was a penalty! Regardless of time, scoreline, who awarded it or any other demented scenario that our neighbours from the east want to cook up it was a foul in the box and therefore a penalty was the correct decision.
As poor a game as Tav had I have to give him credit for stepping up and taking a second one. Say what you will about him, the pressure in that scenario must have been huge. Fans riled up after a lacklustre performance, already missed one penalty and a goal behind in injury time. They don’t come much more pressured than this one but he duly stepped up and hit it with conviction as he went high down the middle. Everyone (myself included) is quick to speak out when he is poor or does something wrong but it’s only fair we give credit where it’s due. It was a great penalty at a decisive time for the team.
Perhaps the one thing I liked even more than the equaliser was the fact he didn’t mess about celebrating. He ran straight into the net, got the ball and threw a quick heart to the fans as he was running back to the centre circle. This wasn’t the same old “we’ve done all we can” attitude. This was a clear expectation that a draw wasn’t anything to celebrate and the focus was to get back to trying to win the game. It’s the same players on the pitch that Beale had available which suggests that mentality can only have come from one place, the manager. Then just two minutes later we struck again as the captain played a long cross in towards Danilo, who duly nodded past Zander Clarke.
Clement celebrates a last gasp win
In his post match interview Clement spoke of the “never give up mentality” he expects from his players and how he was glad they had delivered. Mental strength is just as important in games as physical strength. The ability to be hit by adversity and overcome it is integral for a team aiming to challenge for silver wear. It’s unlikely to be the last time the players have to dig deep to retrieve a result and clearly the expectation from the manager is that they will do it when needed. Hopefully he is correct there.
Whilst it was great to see the mental strength shown, the game play left plenty to be desired. It’s pretty clear that barring a Christmas miracle Cyriel Dessers and Sam Lammers aren’t going to cut it at Rangers. They are lucky just now that we have an injury list the length of the Clyde or you doubt either would be near the first team.
Dessers is perhaps luckier than Lammers here, with both Lovelace and Roofe still holding injuries. We have a huge lack of options for the main striker role and I suspect we will see plenty more minutes for him. That said, I don’t expect him to be starting much more. For the second game in a row Dessers did nothing, was replaced by Danilo who then proceeded to make an impact. In Prague we didn’t get the goal to go with it, however it was clear we were much more dynamic with the Brazilian in play. Dessers is slow, poor in the air, poor holding up the ball or building play and poor with the ball at his feet. Perhaps the only thing he does seem to do reasonably well is find pockets of space in the box but with most SPFL teams loading their box each time they play us it doesn’t really help as it’s next to impossible to thread a ball through to him in most cases, the Hibs game being the exception.
Sam Lammers is more likely to lose minutes in my eyes as we are starting to have much more flexibility here. At the moment we seem to be shunting Cantwell out wide to incorporate him but this is causing us problems in two ways. Lammers seems unable to pick the right pass, frequently loses the ball and seems to either have no first touch or does amazingly well and then does something stupid to give it away afterwards. A prime example of this was one of his last involvements in this game, where he got away from three Hearts players in the box with some deft footwork but then kicked it out for a goal kick. We are also hurt a second way in this case with Cantwell (who is versatile enough to fill in there) being shifted wider to accommodate Lammers. Yes Cantwell can play there but it’s not his best position and we lose his creativity as a ten. With Cantwell working back to full fitness and Lawrence and Dowell coming back into contention it’s likely Lammers will be reduced to a bench warmer unless there is a massive turnaround in his fortunes.
Scott Wright is the final player I’m going to highlight. Rumour has it he is one of those players who trains like a demon but doesn’t deliver on the pitch. When he came on yesterday I could easily have forgotten he was on the field, given his impact. Shortly after, McCausland came on as well and I was far more impressed with his impact. Given this is the second game in a row Wright has done next to nothing you have to wonder if Clement will decide it’s time to give the youngster more minutes at Wright’s expense. The ex-Aberdeen man was nearly away in the summer and based on what we’ve seen so far under both Beale and Clement it might have been better if he had moved on.
Overall this was a poor game to watch but we did control the vast majority of the game. As it’s been for a while now the problem was being clinical enough in front of goal. Hopefully Danilo is the man to solve this problem but he is going to need time to get fully up to speed. As we get our stronger players back available and match it against an improved mentality towards these games we should continue to gain results.
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