IT WAS by no means pretty but last night’s win over Hibernian at Easter Road showed just why Rangers are the champions.
Kemar Roofe’s 85th-minute penalty proved to be the winner in what was a match littered with turnovers and poor decision making from both sides.
It’s now three wins in three for Giovanni van Bronckhorst and it’s clear he has revitalised this Rangers team.
Given the Hampden horror show in the League Cup semi-final 10 days previously, defensively this was a marked improvement.
Calvin Bassey continues to impress alongside Connor Goldson in the heart of the Light Blues backline and despite losing possession on occasion he did well to restrict Martin Boyle and Kevin Nisbet to very little in front of goal.
The race chart above shows the disparity between the teams in terms of chances created and on the balance of play Rangers deserved all three points.
As the shot map indicates, Rangers were relatively sound at the back with little for Allan McGregor to do other than punch some aerial balls away from the danger area and one routine save from an angled Boyle effort.
There’s no question Rangers look more solid defensively since van Bronckhorst took charge and it’s no surprise given his track record of being a conservative coach and his love of a clean sheet.
His post-match interview with Rangers TV gives an insight into just how important he takes the art of defending:
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“You fight hard to keep the zero and you try to make chances,” he said.
“We had some chances in the first half with the big one falling to Morelos just before halftime. Second half Ryan Kent already had some good actions so he was a danger around that side and of course, with the penalty, we could have scored.
“Coming to places like Hibs is going to be tough so to leave here with a win but also with a clean sheet for us is massive.”
Going forward Rangers weren’t at their scintillating best, often giving the ball away in vital areas and lacking intensity.
The first half was relatively uneventful aside from a glaring Alfredo Morelos miss shortly before the break.
The Colombian somehow managed to head wide from close range after meeting a pinpoint cross from Joe Aribo.
As the graphic above indicates, it was a sitter and the best chance of the match from open play given the xG rating of 0.32.
In terms of play, as the heat map below shows, Rangers looked to target Hibs down both flanks with more activity on the left side where Borna Barisic and Ryan Kent were positioned.
Barisic has looked more assured defensively of late but as we can see didn’t offer much in the way of an attacking threat.
It's evident Hibs looked to prioritise attacks down their right side with Chris Cadden looking to help support Boyle so Barisic and, at times, Kent had to work hard defensively to deny the Leith side the chance to progress down that side of the pitch.
It may also be a tactical tweak made by van Bronckhorst in a bid to address the number of goals being lost.
As we can see with Kent's pressure map, it's evident he is tracking back more so under van Bronckhorst than in the previous system under Steven Gerrard.
On the opposite flank, the pressure map shows us James Tavernier was also less prevalent going forward, again this may be another van Bronckhorst tweak to make his backline more robust and less susceptible to being exposed.
In an attacking sense, the onus was on Ianis Hagi to create down the right-hand side but as we can see the Romanian was rarely troubling in the final third.
Credit must go to Josh Doig for his part in keeping Hagi relatively quiet but it also begs the question do Rangers need a better option on the right side of the forward line?
READ MORE: Rangers show mark of champions but they need to address right wing conundrum - Derek Clark
All in all, it was a battling display from Rangers and they showed they can win matches without playing free-flowing champagne-style football.
Two clean sheets in three games is a vast improvement on the earlier season form and it’s now three matches in a row where the Premiership champions haven’t conceded first.
It’s clear van Bronckhorst has made the Ibrox side harder to beat, more work is required to improve the forward line but it certainly bodes well going forward.
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