Analysis Corner: Reasons for Hope & Despair for Rangers fans
By Dougie Wright (@dougie_wright)
Livingston are probably the most unfashionable club in the Scottish top flight.
Sandwiched between Glasgow and Edinburgh, and the four biggest teams in the country, they struggle to attract many fans to their games.
Their pitch is derided for its quality, their style of play is criticised for being too physical and the bookmakers had them as firm favourites to swiftly return to the Scottish Championship by May 2019.
Yet, seven games into the season, the Almondvale club have already won as many games as they did in their last season in the top flight. They’ve now beaten both Hibs and Rangers, whilst earning creditable draws at Killie and league leaders Hearts.
Whilst the fashion when one of the Old Firm lose a game is to admonish them for such a poor display, it’s perhaps appropriate to credit Livingston this week (and Kilmarnock last) on building sides that are organic, well coached and tough to beat.
Forged at the back
So often, the relationship between defence and goalkeeper is pivotal in remaining organised. While the defender will often have an opposite number to “keep an eye on”, the goalkeeper rarely has to worry about man marking. Therefore, a good goalkeeper can guide his defence through awkward situations with the freedom to watch the game develop rather than pay attention to a specific man or space.
In addition to understanding what’s happening in the game, the goalkeeper must also understand his defender’s strengths and limitations. In turn, the defence must trust what the goalkeeper is telling them.
Liam Kelly and Craig Halkett grew up in the same Rangers youth side and would see each other at every training session for the best part of a decade.
Kelly knows how fast Halkett is, the strength of his first touch and which foot he likes to play off. Halkett knows how many men Kelly wants in a box defending a corner, and how comfortable he is receiving back passes. This is a partnership a long time in the making.
Thanks in no small part to Kelly’s guidance, Halkett won the ball back 22 times for his side on Sunday. He returned the favour by giving his goalkeeper only 4 shots to contend with throughout the game, despite conceding both possession and territory to their Glasgow visitors.
Away day blues
At the weekend, it emerged that Rangers had not won an away game in the league since February. Despite the whirlwind of change that engulfed the Ibrox club over the summer, it appears as though their poor away form has stuck with them.
Despite this, Gerrard still retains overwhelming support from the Rangers fanbase. There are likely three main reasons why.
Firstly, qualifying for the Europa League group stages has put the club on a platform they haven’t been near in almost a decade. While there are obvious commercial and financial benefits to qualification, the most important part of this is that, in the eyes of Rangers fans, the club is now one step closer back to where they belong.
Secondly, while zero wins from four away games looks pretty miserable, the context of these games is important. Basically the last kick of the ball denied Rangers three points at Aberdeen and Motherwell. Parkhead is never an easy place to go, while Livingston are currently third in the table with a home record of one defeat in their last fourteen games.
Finally, it’s a truism in life that you always compare yourself to your neighbours. Were Celtic racing towards eight in a row, Rangers fans would perhaps be panicking. Yet the fact that their dearest rivals only sit two points ahead of them in the table is certainly within “touching distance” given that at the same stage over the past two seasons, the gap has sat at seven points.
Essentially, there is still a feel-good factor around the club, the fixtures should get easier, and the mistakes have not been costly enough to put them out of touch with Celtic.
And yet…
Despite the mitigating circumstances, there are good enough reasons for fans to be concerned by the club’s league form this season.
They’re fourth in the league for shots taken, sixth in the league for shots conceded and risk going eleven points behind Hearts should they taste defeat at Ibrox this weekend.
The saving grace has been three comfortable wins from three at home. However, you can’t argue that they’ve been poor away from home due to fixture difficulty and then ignore the relative ease of their Ibrox games so far. St Johnstone, St Mirren and Dundee sit 8th, 11th and 12th in the table respectively. Runaway leaders Hearts will present a different test altogether.
Furthermore, the weekend’s defeat at Livingston brought back echoes of the worst of the Warburton era. Rangers might have enjoyed 67% of possession at the weekend, but less than a third of the passes went forwards. No penetration is a sign that you’re becoming too predictable. It’s up to Steven Gerrard to find an answer to that.
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