Rangers Fight, Ultimately Fall

Regardless of whose colors you might have been flying, for anyone that watched the first Old Firm game of the season this past Sunday between bitter rivals Celtic and Rangers I would hope they would feel comfortable saying it was a close game and one that was won off of Celtic capitalizing on opportunities and not one Rangers lost (wholly) for lack of trying. That said, it would be remiss to not recognize some of the factors playing against Rangers in the lead up to the game.

First and foremost this was a tired team because August had been a rather full month in terms of games – 9 in total – which often came with little time between to rest and recover or spend with family. Not only that, but just sixty hours before the bout against Celtic at Parkhead the lads were fighting their way into the group stages in Russia for the Europa League, this being the first time since 2011 that they’ve achieved that. The next factor to consider is that this is a lot of weight to put on the shoulders of new players and not expect to see some sort of give in their play, which was evident in Ovie Ejaria’s because after running himself ragged Thursday night in Russia he just seemed to be out of steam at the most inopportune times – namely not tracking back when Oliver Ntcham made a break down field with the ball to score the only goal of the game. The heat he’s catching for this, if you were to pause your reading here and check social media, should instead be less focused and more widely applied to the team as a whole because a single player isn’t responsible for how imbalanced the post-game stats are.

To put it simply…

The midfield game was non-existent in the first half to the point that Celtic could have squeezed a few more of their fans into the stadium by setting up folding chairs on their half of the field. Despite this, Rangers defense was stalwart with Allan McGregor making not only a point-blank stop but a spectacular save later on that found him jumping back up to his feet after a dive to catch a rebound that went straight up off of the cross-bar and was still in play, and further credit is due to any of the numerous attempts to clear the threat to put some heat on Celtic’s defenders that the Rangers just couldn’t seem to follow-up on and eventually a hole was found for the first and only goal of the game to be put on the board. After the halftime break some fiery words must have been said in the locker room because Rangers came back and appeared much more aggressive, pushing Celtic back across the midfield utilizing the sides to good effect on several occasions however with only six shots on goal in comparison to Celtic’s sixteen, all of which were either not on target or there was no one in place to follow-up, as all things must the game came to an end with Rangers not even getting on the board. Some fans would speculate that poor calls were the reason for the defeat at Parkway (and admittedly it looked like there were a few during the replays), but frankly the display put on wasn’t one where a call going another way would have been enough to outweigh a tired, unorganized team going up against a more rested opponent on their home turf.

Going forward

With the next game on the 15th against Dundee it would behoove the Rangers to recognize and take responsibility for their failings against Celtic – individually and as a team where applicable – and treat this past weekend as a learning experience. If they do that and with the chance to finally rest up before going into a match what I think we’ll see on the 15th is a more coordinated and aggressive Rangers offense than what we saw Sunday to compliment the strong defense, a higher ball possession time, a midfield fight and shots on goal to put pressure on the defense, and better coordination of plays and passes that lead to effective shots on goal. Over the next two months Rangers can hopefully iron out the imperfections in their play, perhaps put some fresh faces on the line or see the return of others to liven things up, and we get to see a more cohesive team before Celtic steps foot in Ibrox stadium on December 29th.