How Malik Tillman helped Rangers turn the tide in Livingston victory

Although the 20-year-old wasn’t directly involved in either goal, he proved the centrepiece in allowing Rangers to turn their territorial dominance on the flanks into the currency of chances. In many ways, the USA international was the perfect cure to the ills of the opening 45 minutes.

The game was barely 90 seconds old when Glen Kamara latched onto a trademark Connor Goldson diagonal from defence.

It set the scene in regards to Rangers’ midfield dynamic: John Lundstram sat at the base of the triangle, while Tom Lawrence would drift towards the right-hand side to help create overloads, and Kamara, when stationed on the far side of the ball, would sit high and stretch Livingston’s defensive line.

However, as highlighted in Rangers’ pass map from the first half, accessing both advanced midfielders from deep proved increasingly difficult, with Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side heavily reliant on creation from the wide areas.

As underlined by the Dutchman post-match, the state of the game also changed following Livingston’s opener. “We didn’t look sharp for the goal against us. It took us out of it and we didn’t play our normal game in the first half,” said the Gers boss. “We weren’t taking the right positions or zones at the right moments when we had the ball.

READ MORE: How Rangers defeated the Livingston block with Ryan Kent's one-v-one dismarking

It took the half-time introduction of Tillman to inject variation into the side’s attacking patterns. “In the second half we did much better…”, noted van Bronckhorst.

Tillman replaced Scott Wright at the interval, with Lawrence taking up an inverted position on the right, granting space for James Tavernier to advance. Tillman operated centrally, drifting towards the left-hand side to pin Livingston central and afford Kent greater room to manoeuvre on the flank. The 20-year-old’s receptions map from the victory underlines his capacity to receive in the left half-space.

Contrasted with the locations of Kamara’s touches, Tillman was more comfortable waiting on the ball to arrive as opposed to dropping deep.

Indeed, one of the facets of the midfield display was his ability to come out of the shadow of Livingston’s midfield line to receive passes, aiding the control Rangers exerted on the game in the final 15 minutes after Tavernier put his side ahead.

With the Rangers captain advancing on the right flank, Scott Arfield takes up an intelligent position inside to create an impossible scenario for Jason Holt.

The Livingston midfielder is caught in a two-vs-one, allowing Tillman, coming from an advanced position behind the Livingston midfield, to receive on his blindside before moving the ball onto Arfield.

With the second-half introductions of Tillman and Arfield, coupled with Lawrence’s inverted role on the right, Rangers were able to erode Livingston’s man-orientated defensive set-up.

The visitors could change the direction of attacks by using Tillman's comfort when receiving with his back to goal, essentially playing wall passes off the on-loan midfielder.

In a matter of seconds, Rangers are then able to attack down the opposite side.

Similarly, Tillman held the key to unlocking Livingston’s man-marking in his capacity to retain the ball. “In the second half, Malik played very well – in between the lines, he was very strong on the ball,” noted van Bronckhorst post-match.

READ MORE: Rangers' John Souttar defence is stress-tested and rational - Joshua Barrie

It was particularly noteworthy that the midfielder would often delay the release of his passes to drag opponents away from his teammates and create space.

Receiving the ball in the example below, Tillman immediately turns out towards the left-hand side.

Scott Pittman – tasked with tracking Kent on the wing – is attracted inside, with Tillman delaying his pass to coax the Livingston wide man further infield.

In doing so, Kent receives the subsequent pass in acres of space on the touchline, allowing him to directly attack down the line.

There was a moment earlier in the half, too, where Tillman elected against playing a first-time pass to Borna Barisic while Rangers had Livingston pinned into their own penalty box.

By delaying the pass, Livingston’s right full-back, Nicky Devlin, is forced to remain narrow.

However, Barisic is reluctant to attack the space, with Tillman’s lay-off running too far ahead of him to make any use of the crossing opportunity.

The concern following Joe Aribo’s departure this summer was that Rangers were losing a two-in-one player. Not only was the Nigerian capable of consistently teeing up his teammates, but he had the capacity to single-handedly smash through the deep defensive blocks that Rangers often encounter in a domestic environment.

The side's ability to solve the deep block in Scotland relies just as much on the tactical set-up as it does individual players taking responsibility.

In that respect, Tillman’s 45 minutes in Livingston bodes well for the remainder of the season. Comfortable in ownership of the ball, and with sufficient tactical awareness to help decode the opposition, the USA international made a notable impact on his debut.