Inside Rangers' Bermuda triangle and why the right flank has been a problem - Adam Thornton

These were the words of then Manchester Utd manager Sir Alex Ferguson, speaking just before his team were beaten 2-0 by a Xavi and Andres Iniesta inspired Barcelona team in the 2009 Champions League final. This was at the apex of Barcelona’s tiki-taka prowess, where arguably the greatest club side ever throttled teams into submission with their rhythmic, well-drilled approach to dominating football games. As is now commonly accepted, this approach focused on the creation and exploitation of space in the opposition defensive areas. One of the key tools Barcelona utilised to support their ball progression into the final third was the use of short, intricate passing that usually involved three players with the intention of dragging opponents out of position.

Fast forward to present day Rangers, and the team that conquered Scotland last year uses a similar tactical concept with three of their key players but does so in a slightly different way. Borna Barisic, Glen Kamara and Ryan Kent usually form the ‘left side’ of Rangers' tactical shape.

Last season, Connor Goldson famously played every minute of 56 games in all competitions. Kent (52) Kamara (51) and Barisic (50) made the next highest number of appearances and for most of those games, all played together on that left-hand side. It is a remarkable show of consistency in the modern game and has helped them to develop the now telepathic understanding that they appear to have.

In total, their attacking play resulted in 20 goals and 27 assists in all competitions last season, but this doesn’t tell the full story.

Barisic, playing as the attacking left-back, is tasked with surging forward freely into dangerous attacking positions where he can make use of his laser precision crossing. Glen Kamara is the tactical chameleon of the team, his wide and varied skillset means he’s capable of playing in at least six of Rangers' ten outfield positions. He acts as the glue that holds the left side together, as outlined in more detail in my previous article on Rangers' midfield evolution. Should Barisic be caught up field, Kamara is the one to shuttle wide and look to prevent counter-attacks. If an opposition team decide to overload Rangers' left flank, there he is to provide support to his man and regain possession of the ball. These are key skills in this Rangers tactical set-up, skills that made Kamara’s absence from last week’s 2-1 defeat in Malmo all the more pronounced. Ryan Kent is Rangers' ace in the hole, the player who strikes fear into the hearts of opposition defenders with his terrific dribbling skills and technical ability on either foot. His defensive work is also incredibly underrated for a player in a position that some could consider a luxury.

Possessing such ability allows Kent to dovetail perfectly with both Kamara and Barisic to form Rangers very own passing triangle on the left side of the pitch. The trio use their technical and physical ability on and off the ball to combine quickly with the main intention of locating Barisic in space on the overload to deliver into the box, something they do regularly to devastating effect.

Rangers can be slightly one dimensional in attack on this side of the pitch given Barisic’s reliance on his left foot crossing ability and the focus opposition teams tend to place on marking Ryan Kent with multiple numbers - so it’s vital to ensure they receive the ball in areas they can maximise damage.

With that being said, most Rangers attacks do tend to start on the other flank with right-back James Tavernier receiving the ball deep in his own half. Given his ability to carry the ball forward at speed and to initiate the opposition press, Rangers take full advantage of this and, with the help of the ball-side centre midfielder and attacker, look to create an opening higher up on the right side.

Alternatively, Rangers will also regularly look to switch play quickly to the left-hand side and catch the opposition out with an overload to allow Barisic space in a one vs one situation.

Rangers took advantage of this very approach to great effect in the December 2019 2-1 victory over Celtic at Parkhead. The thick red line indicates that Barisic and Kent combined often in this game and using the xG colour key we can see that they were also responsible for combining to create the highest quality chances, with Kent scoring the opening goal of the game.

Play progressed down Rangers right-hand side as previously noted, which caused the Celtic defence to shuffle over to offer additional protection. As Glen Kamara received the ball, he swivelled to avoid the pressure of Ryan Christie and funnelled the pass quickly over to Ryan Jack, who in turn stroked a first time ball into the feet of Borna Barisic in the same attacking zone mentioned earlier.

Due to this switch of play, Barisic was able to successfully isolate Jeremie Frimpong in a dangerous area and utilise his delivery into the box to maximum effect.

Most observers would have expected Barisic to shift his weight onto the left and curl a ball into the box, but he elected to catch Celtic by surprise and play a low cut back into Ryan Kent who finished first time past Fraser Forster in the Celtic goal.

As mentioned, Rangers do predominantly build up play down their right-hand side, through James Tavernier and have done even since the pre-Gerrard days when the right-back formed a solid partnership with Portuguese winger Daniel Candeias.

In the 3-0 victory against Livingston on the opening day of the season, the pass map above shows that the highest volume of passes and most chances created do come from Rangers' right-hand side of the pitch. Of course, two of the three goals in this game were scored as a result of creativity on the right, with Tavernier crossing for Hagi’s first and some combination play down the right eventually leading to Scott Wright’s sublime finish for the second.

Despite this creativity and attacking intent, an important point to note is that throughout last season Rangers did not benefit from the same level of consistency of selection on the right as they did on the left, with a much higher turnover of players due to injuries and use of some players in other roles. Tavernier, Nathan Patterson, Scott Arfield, Ryan Jack, Joe Aribo, Ianis Hagi, Scott Wright and Kemar Roofe all featured heavily throughout the season on the right. Their contribution was huge overall with all players performing well in stages and Tavernier (19) and Roofe (18) finishing as the team’s top two goal scorers in all competitions - but it could be argued that this was despite the huge rotation of players on this side of the park rather than because of it.

In the (very) early stages of this season we have already seen a similar state of flux. Excluding in-game substitutions, James Tavernier has already lined up with three completely different partnerships in front of him in the first three competitive games. Against Livingston, Kamara and Hagi were selected in the right central midfielder and right forward roles, against Malmo Scott Arfield and Scott Wright were given the nod and against Dundee United it was the turn of John Lundstram and Joe Aribo. This does not even take into account the returns of Ryan Jack and Kemar Roofe, two players most fans would possibly have as their first picks in these roles.

Whilst Rangers do create more chances down their right-hand side than they do on the opposite flank, it is important to note that they need not have similar players performing similar tactical roles on both sides of the pitch as this could lead to predictability in their attacks.

With that being said, the flux in terms of player selection on the right has been more regular than you would assume the club would prefer. The introduction of players such as John Lundstram and Fashion Sakala give the right-hand side even more options, but with options and such flexibility of roles can come inconsistency and a lack of cohesion. Injuries in this department haven’t helped either as most of the players who play mentioned have struggled with injury or suspensions over the last 12 months, meaning that the opportunity to forge as deep an understanding as their counterparts on the opposite flank, hasn’t been possible.

In their first three games of the season so far, Rangers have conceded three goals. Each has in part been due to some poor decision making on the right-hand side of the pitch. In both of the goals conceded against Malmo, we saw some mistakes that possibly could be explained by a lack of cohesion.

In the image above, we can see John Lundstram had occupied a good defensive position close to Malmo dangerman Andres Christiansen. As the ball was worked down the Malmo right-hand side, Lundstram appeared to pass Christiansen on to Tavernier which would be an expected decision given the anticipation of a cross into the box.

Given Gerrard’s propensity for his wider central midfielders to shuffle out wide and provide additional cover on the flanks, Lundstram should have had an awareness of left wing-back Søren Rieks coming in unmarked at the back post.

He did not appear to anticipate this and Rieks was left with an opportunity for a clear strike at goal which gave Malmo the lead.

For the second goal, a sloppy pass by Tavernier into Steven Davis was seized on intelligently by Christiansen and provided Malmo with the opportunity to break forward on a counterattack.

There is an argument that Steven Davis could have committed a tactical foul on Christiansen to avoid the counter, but the midfielder skipped away before that really becomes a realistic option.

Given Tavernier’s renowned fitness levels and recovery pace, it is not unrealistic to suggest he could have made more of an attempt to race back into position on the right-hand side. As it is, Malmo successfully overloaded the same flank once again which resulted in an excellent finish by Veljko Birmančević who made it 2-0.

In Saturday’s disappointing 1-0 loss to Dundee United in the league, we also saw a goal conceded from Rangers right-sided defensive area. United worked the ball well down their left flank and whilst they were aided by a sizeable deflection, both Lundstram and Tavernier were also caught out by the run of left wing-back Jamie Robson who anticipated the pass, breaking through the defensive line to slot the ball under Jon McLaughlin.

As player fitness improves in the early weeks and months of the season and suspensions are fully served, it would be expected that some consistency of selection will be evident on the right side of the pitch. It stands to reason that this will go some way to aiding the team’s cohesiveness and ensure Rangers are capable of not only attacking down both flanks but also defending in a more cohesive manner.