Rangers were combative on Sunday, as predicted. They were fired up and, at times, threatening. Nothing about that was surprising. They scored first. Again, it wasn’t a shock-horror moment. They’ve now taken the lead in four Old Firm games in a row.
The puzzle about how they can look pretty coherent in these games and look so bereft in others remains unsolved. Yes, they have more freedom to play when up against strong opposition who don’t resort to the low block to frustrate them, but that only goes a certain part of the way in explaining the vast disparity in performances.
How can you go toe-to-toe with the likely Europa League finalists Spurs and Manchester United – scoring in both, drawing one and losing the other to a late, late goal – and yet fall in a goalless heap against teams with a fraction of your playing resources and questionable defensive records?
At their worst this season, Rangers have lacked nous, steel, pace, leadership, creativity, goals from midfield, apart from Vaclav Cerny, and goals from a striker other than Dessers.
All four of Celtic’s starting defenders on Sunday have scored more times this season than Conor Barron, who’s on zero. Liam Scales, a centre-half, has as many as Nico Raskin, a defensive midfielder.
Of the XIs who began at Ibrox, Rangers had two players in double figures for the season, Celtic had five – and that was with Nicolas Kuhn injured and Kyogo Furuhashi sold. Luke McCowan, an unused substitute on the day, has scored more goals than seven of Rangers’ outfield starters.
Despite all of this, they can live with Celtic on any given day. They just can’t live with the pressure of should-win and must-win games.
We’re told none of this is lost on the prospective new owners. They know the team and its foibles, they know the Scottish landscape and who dominates it, they know the distance they must travel across some rocky terrain and they know every inch of progress is going to be hard-won.
Rangers are capable of flash-in-the-pan performances, like Sunday and the other ones that went before against Celtic, but there’s an empty feeling, an irrelevance when you suspect their next slip is just days away.
Unbeaten, but still bowed, Rangers folk will want to go to sleep now and wake only when the new owners are in and making the kind of profound change that’s required.
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