Five talking points from Rangers win over Livingston

After the opening day defeat to Kilmarnock, a Rangers win in the league was badly needed. Fortunately, the team delivered, picking up a 4-0 home victory to Livingston.

Here, Scott McKay gives his first main talking points from what ended up being a comfortable victory for the Ibrox side.

The need to avoid complacency

We started the match well enough, coming flying out the traps with some good combination play from the Rangers forward line. We scored a well worked goal from good forward play with Todd Cantwell getting involved in the area and creating havoc in the Livingston defence with Sam Lammers finishing off the goal with a powerful finish past the Livingston goalkeeper.

I decided to write a column on the match as there was a long spell in the game where it looked like Livingston were finding their feet. This performance wasn’t comfortable for me and there still needs to be some work done on the training pitch.

Cyril Dessers needs some more match sharpness as certain things he is trying still aren’t coming off, but I’m confident with time and minutes, he will be a quality addition. I’m just looking for him to work the opposition defence more to help the build-up play.

We took our foot off the gas midway through the first half and for a part of the second half. The combination play will come, in that I’m confident. Livingston could have been 1-1 midway through the second half if it wasn’t for a great challenge by Man of the Match John Souttar to nip the ball off the Livingston striker before the ball reached him.

Second half subs spark live into a stagnant tempo

The second half subs made me feel a bit different towards the end of the game. Having Danilo through the middle gave us more movement and worked the Livingston backline more. Dujon Sterling came on to right back and Rangers captain James Tavernier moved into the right side of centre midfield which is an interesting take.

The 4th goal was outstanding as it all started from a Kieran Dowell flick that took out two Livingston players and created space for Rabbi Matondo to drive through the middle of the park to then return the ball to Dowell who scored the best goal of the season so far. The goals came from all our new signings today with Danilo, Lammers, Sima and Dowell all scoring the first goals for the club which will be a big boost to their confidence going forward.

Shout out to Rabbi Matondo

The winger came in and helped secure the 3 points with an assist for Kieran Dowell, and he caused problems with his pace and energy off the ball. The Rangers winger is clearly a confidence player and he should take some in his cameo off the bench today as he came on and affected the match.

Jose Cifuentes

Our new signing had an impressive debut overall, affecting the match in the right areas of the pitch and scoring a goal which was ruled out for handball. Looks tidy on the ball with a good engine up and down the park. Looks to progress the ball in the forward areas of the pitch. With more minutes on the pitch should be an astute signing for Rangers manager Michael Beale.

Match Summary

Overall I’m relatively happy with the performance and with more minutes on the pitch together, the players should begin to gel and become a more effective attacking side. Danilo looks a far better prospect in the central striking position and worked the Livingston backline more when he was given the opportunity to play there. Rabbi Matondo has restored some of the faith we had in him last preseason. All the signings scoring will help the confidence. However, I feel we must look to close matches off quicker, to many times we have seen us holding a 1-0 lead at home with half an hour left and it lets the opposition side get some hope.