Giovanni van Bronckhorst's Rangers failure was in his philosophy

The outpouring of joy that followed Rangers being anointed Europa League finalists was immortalised in a 10-minute clip that you can be confident fans will be watching decades from now. In the bedlam after the final whistle, it felt like the dawn of something truly special for Giovanni van Bronckhorst. History will tell us how wrong we got it, wrapped up in emotion. In truth, the narrative of his reign was already written, we just couldn't see it through the fog of those intoxicating European results. It was in places with far less glamour and excitement, like Dingwall and Tannadice, the seeds of what was to come were already sown. 

For all his obvious strengths as a measured, thoughtful coach, cool under pressure and with a lighter touch than his predecessor Steven Gerrard - the Dutchman is also lacking in a fixed attacking philosophy beyond his basic principles of possession football, using central midfielder runners and wide wingers in a 4-3-3. 

Van Bronckhorst was moulded at Arsenal and Barcelona in a time when you organised the defence and let attacking players do their thing. In that era, it was reactive coaches who often made the biggest mark. Today, the world’s most famous managers like Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola have flipped the script. The best teams are as organised in the attacking phase as the best defences of the past were drilled into impenetrability. You never got the sense van Bronckhorst's Rangers had moved with the times. And probably the biggest problem was that across the Clyde, Celtic's manager Ange Postecoglou is building a side in that very modern framework.

While hardly impressive on the continent, they have a leader whose philosophy is built to bulldoze the deep-lying defensive structures that stand in their way in Scotland. Attractive to watch and regularly able to win games even when hope seems lost, they have set a pace the Dutchman found impossible to match. Against another manager, van Bronckhorst may have found it easier, but the reality is what it is - he faced a formidable foe and came off the worse for it. 

And that's not to decry van Bronckhorst as without merit. If you were a Wolves, Aston Villa or Leeds sporting director, perhaps you'd feel more comfortable with a pragmatic manager who can react to the opposition. That's not what's required in Glasgow though.

Detailed tactical analysis of teams with tiny budgets and little attacking appetite is a waste of time in this city. Walter Smith, the greatest manager of the club's modern era would not expend much energy on how the smaller clubs might play, well aware that should Rangers reach their levels, nothing would change the outcome of the match.

In Scotland, 70 percent of the games faced are about breaking down packed defences, and ultimately that’s where it's gone wrong for van Bronckhorst. His system has not been creatively adequate to smash the stubborn domestic block often enough. That's his primary failure. It's one of philosophy rather than managerial talent because he has tangible coaching chops. He showed many outstanding qualities in that storied European run, not least an uncanny ability to suss out opposition in the away leg and batter them into submission in the Ibrox bearpit. 

Back in the domestic grind though? Consistency of attacking play was always mercurial. A seven-game winning run that followed his appointment was as good as it got and even then, performances were rarely emphatic.

Sign up in 5 seconds (Image: NQ)

The one time the van Bronckhorst philosophy clearly clicked came late in his reign as the players rebounded from a 3-0 defeat in Napoli with a stunning performance against Aberdeen. The history books tell us four goals were scored but it should have been so much more. An xG of 6.19, the highest of the season by some distance speaks volumes but it was also a day when Aberdeen came out swinging. The Dons looked to lay a glove and take advantage of a wounded side. It's a tactic scarcely adopted and you could see why. 

What the likes of David Martindale of Livingston, Callum Davidson of St Johnstone and Stephen Robinson of St Mirren clearly had sussed was that if you push Rangers down the sides, Antonio Colak would be isolated and their' threat blunted. Ravaged by injury and the phycological scars of Champions League batterings, there wasn't enough in the tank to find solutions to the problems posed by canny bosses who looked to exploit his team's obvious limitations.

With a European Final, Scottish Cup, qualifying for the Champions League and a sacking within his year in charge, history will suggest Giovanni van Bronckhorst was a capable manager whose time in charge was a rollercoaster. The inability to win the title means he could not be considered a success but given his achievements, neither can it be idly dismissed as a failure. 

The complex and conflicting evidence on both sides of the coin shows an imperfect marriage of club and managerial philosophy. Primarily, van Bronckhorst's record in Holland suggested he was likely a manager most suited to winning cups rather than leagues and so it proved. That's clearly not compatible with a country where the Premiership title is everything and it's why the Rangers board were correct to take a tough decision on a fine man who was only the 17th manager in the 150-year history of the club. 

READ MORE:

• Van Bronckhorst's role was untenable, here's why - Joshua Barrie
• The 10 games that defined Giovanni van Bronckhorst's Rangers reign