First home league match, same result
It may not have been the prettiest of games, but Giovanni van Bronckhorst has made a flying start to life as Rangers manager. His 100 per cent record was maintained with this victory, and you could see how pleased he was at full-time. Rangers were never in any real danger, however, with the score so tight for a long period of the match, dropped points is never out of the question. Joe Aribo was the standout for the home team as they saw out this routine win.
Interchanging frontline
This is of course nothing new in football, nor at Rangers. However, it was very evident from early in the game that van Bronckhorst instructed his team to swap positions frequently in a bid to mix things up and confuse the Dundee backline. Alfredo Morelos found himself out on the left fairly often, with Fashion Sakala drifting into the centre-forward position. Hagi also moved over from right to left. When in possession, Scott Arfield and Joe Aribo would stand on either striker to act as additional forward players when trying to break down the defence.
Patient play
It has been noticeable since van Bronckhorst took over the reigns that his style of play is more direct than that of Steven Gerrard’s preferred methods. In the matches previous to Saturday, Rangers got the ball forward quickly from the defence into the midfield ball players, and then into the front areas. On several occasions though, particularly first half, there was a large degree of patience in Rangers’ play. Sometimes when a killer pass was on, the ball would be moved sideways rather than forwards. Far from a criticism, but it was an interesting style change from Gio and his team.
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