Giovanni van Bronckhorst hasn’t been backwards coming forwards since his appointment as Rangers manager in mid-November. Rather than stick to Steven Gerrard’s approach – which may have been stagnating but nonetheless left the club top of the table – the Dutchman has brought in some of his own ideas.
There is now a greater focus on width coming from the attackers, with Ryan Kent and Fashion Sakala used as ‘true’ wingers, staying near the touchline and running at or behind full-backs. This feeds into another change, which is a greater speed of attacking play. Gerrard generally emphasised control of possession, whereas Van Bronckhorst appears intent on faster approach play.
Evidence of this can be seen in Statsbomb’s Pace Towards Goal (PTG) metric, which measures the average speed of build-up for possessions that end in shots, from the start of possession to shot, in m/s (meters per second). In Van Bronckhorst’s four league games as boss, Rangers’ PTG has gone from 2.03 m/s to 2.31 m/s.
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Greater width in the frontline and a higher tempo of attack are among the most noticeable differences between Rangers under Gerrard and Rangers under Gio. And while they may be getting less attention now than they did before, the full-backs have been vital to these modifications.
Van Bronckhorst is asking his wingers to get more chalk on their boots, and often fielding attacking midfield selections including two ‘runners’ in Scott Arfield and Joe Aribo who, among other things, are expected to go beyond Alfredo Morelos and contribute more in the final third. In last weekend’s win over Hearts at Tynecastle, arguably the toughest away game Rangers have outside of the derbies, Morelos was supported by a quartet of Sakala, Kent, Aribo and Arfield, all of whom offered pace and runs behind the last line.
With such an adventurous front five, not to mention a holding midfielder in Glen Kamara who is more playmaker than ball-winner, it is imperative that the full-backs offer more defensive security than they did under Gerrard. Of course, the issue is that neither James Tavernier nor Borna Barisic are renowned for their 1v1 defending.
One of Van Bronckhorst’s solutions to this problem has been tweaking Barisic’s position on the field. So, instead of playing two attack-minded full-backs, Rangers have consistently played with just one since the change of manager.
This was most noticeable in the 3-0 win over Dundee, where Sakala was handed full ownership of the left wing. As a consequence, the Zambian was allotted more space to attack and could get into more 1v1 isolations where his speed can win out. To balance this, Barisic stayed closer to centre-backs Conor Goldson and Calvin Bassey.
Previously, Barisic’s overlapping runs were systematic. By default, he took up a high position to offer width on the left-hand side of a winger-less Rangers side. He still overlaps now, but Van Bronckhorst has clearly asked him to time those runs. Now, it’s more a decision for Barisic to make.
Only in time will we see how well he handles that responsibility of when to help the left winger, and when to help the centre-backs. Up to this point, however, it has worked.
Counter-pressing was a hallmark of Gerrard’s style and his possession game fed into it. Now, with more players potentially getting caught ahead of the ball (Arfield, Aribo, Kent, Sakala, etc.) it may be harder to retain that same counter-pressing intensity. But Barisic, sitting alongside the centre-backs, can at least help provide security against the counter-attack as it develops.
According to Statsbomb data, it would seem the positional tweak has helped Barisic defensively. Since Van Bronckhorst took over, he has won more tackles, more aerial duels, and has an improved Tackle/Dribbled Past percentage, which means he’s being beaten 1v1 less frequently.
He hasn’t become a better player overnight, but the subtle tactical changes have perhaps masked his weakness defending near the touchline. This may not solely be down to his sitting deeper and more central, but could also be about the extra defensive help he gets from the winger, be it Sakala or Kent.
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Tavernier has experienced less of a role shift under the new manager. Mostly, he is still tasked with providing attacking width down the right side. Ianis Hagi has been his usual partner down that flank, but the Romanian is naturally inclined to drift infield and leave the wing to his full-back teammate.
Nonetheless, Hagi stays wide more often than before, and Tavernier therefore will make runs inside of him – underlapping rather than overlapping – and get into the penalty box before crossing. And against Hearts, where Van Bronckhorst opted for Sakala on the right wing, Tavernier performed a much more defensive role.
The following was a recurring theme at Tynecastle: Rangers would play short from the back, Hearts would press, and Tavernier would send a ball directly over the top or into the feet of Morelos.
Like Barisic on the other side, Tavernier ‘stayed’ more than he ‘went’, and let the winger run the flank. As our very own Joshua Barrie wrote, it was essentially a back five and a front five (the back four + Kamara, then a front five constantly trying to run in behind Hearts’ high line).
Van Bronckhorst wants more speed and width in Rangers’ attacking. Tavernier and Barisic may be less involved from an offensive standpoint, but they remain integral to the overall effectiveness of the team’s play.
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