Yesterday's 2-0 win at home against Dundee United was comfortable without ever becoming convincing for Rangers.

The hosts were always in control, spare a few transitional moments when the visitors threatened, but despite their volume of opportunity, chance quality was often low.

The game’s trendline shows plenty of spikes which indicate efforts on goal, all of which are relatively small to demonstrate their low xG value.

Their xG/Shot, a metric which evaluates the average expected goal of a team's efforts, came in at 0.07, a drop from the 0.10 average at home this season. As shown, activity around the six-yard box was limited.

Step forward Malik Tillman.

The 20-year-old provided another man-of-the-match display in a season full of them. As the Rangers Review hypothesised earlier this week, despite not averaging a huge number of shots per 90, Tillman’s xG overperformance and location of shots taken shows his impressive finishing level and final-third proficiency. In what often became a stuffy encounter the American’s clinical edge proved to be the difference.

Having predominantly occupied a midfield role under Beale, Tillman was stationed in a higher starting position alongside Ryan Kent yesterday.

"Since we've come in, we've made quite a lot of modifications to Malik's game in terms of certain aspects. Today we asked him to play really close to Alfredo because we thought it would give us a physical presence,” Beale said during his post-match press conference.

"It was a slight change for him from normal but he's come away with two goals. He's showing good signs that he can do a variety of jobs. At such a young age I think he's got a really high ceiling.”

Tillman operated in between the lines as often as possible, trying to get turned ahead of the defence.

Rangers often dropped an extra player into the backline to stretch the visitor's four-man midfield and create these gaps to play through. 

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Here, as the ball is worked wide, Peter Pawlett is initially focusing on the outside pass, creating room for Ryan Jack to slip in Tillman between the lines.

In this similar example, Ben Davies finds the feet of Alfredo Morelos, looking for the third-man run of Kent. Keep this third-man run concept in mind.

You can see growing trends in the game’s pass network when compared to previous weeks. Rangers played with some resemblance of a box midfield, while Tillman operated close to Morelos on the last line. 

Beale wants his forwards playing “close together”. It's a theme he’s reiterated since being unveiled as manager last November. Both goals yesterday demonstrated the value of that principle and the growing on-pitch relationships the manager is encouraging.

“The goals in the middle so you try to go through the middle as much as you can,” he said speaking about his team’s approach yesterday. 

Tillman, who scored either side of the interval, predominantly got on the ball towards the right, as shown in his passes received map.

He was also able to carry the ball in central areas, demonstrating his strength to hold off markers.

Beale said “there were a lot of good things we’ve been working on” after the match and both of the youngster's goals fall into that category.

What's more, the manager spoke in his pre-match press conference about the growing relationship between Todd Cantwell and Tillman, saying: “They're two fantastic players and they've got a really good relationship off the pitch. In time I'd love to see that coming out more and more in big games.”

Building on-pitch relationships is another of Beale’s mantras. Notice these three key features in both goals, attackers playing close together, on-pitch relationships and diagonal passes leading to third-man runs.

After 35 minutes of stubborn resolve, Jim Goodwin’s men eventually faltered when an intelligent third-man combination carved open the defence. Tillman and Cantwell seemed to be playing a step ahead of everyone else in Ibrox because, in a sense, they were.

As Connor Goldson strides forward with the ball, notice Tillman has his arm outstretched, asking for the ball to be played into the feet of Cantwell.

As shown in this still, Tillman is already making his run before Goldson's pass is halfway to Cantwell. The duo are playing in tandem to break down the block.

Watching the entire sequence, this type of movement clearly looks to be one of the details Rangers have been working on behind the scenes. 

 

The second goal was in many ways similar. Notice three attackers in close conjunction. Tillman is again the third man in this sequence, with Tavernier initially finding Kent before the young attacker finishes the move.

It was his 10th league goal of the season and, interestingly, Tillman's fourth from a very similar area towards the right of the box.

Post-match media duties were mainly dominated by one topic, Malik Tillman's future.

This was another exciting iteration of his game in a season full of them. There's reason to be excited not only about the numbers he can hit playing in a higher role, but the on-pith relationships being built around him.