Picture the scene – it’s match day four of the 2020/21 season and Rangers have drawn 0-0 with Livingston, managing just three shots on target the whole game and never really looking like scoring, four games later and we dropped another two against Hibs at Easter Road.
Queue meltdown.
Fast forwards five months, give or take, and the league title had already been sewn up.
Style of football has never been the primary concern of Rangers fans, it’s all about winning, about collecting trophies whatever it takes, however, the way in which our city rivals are sweeping teams aside has already sent some into panic mode.
Now is the time for calm, not overreaction. Holding on with nine men was always going to be a tough ask, and we came painfully close to doing it, but until Hibs second went in we had only lost two goals in four games and had barely conceded any other chances – over the course of a season, this is what wins championships.
The reality is that we haven’t looked like dropping points in any games even if we haven’t been great to watch.
We have also had key players missing in important positions – Kemar Roofe and Ianis Hagi still out for the foreseeable – and new players adapting to life at a massive club where second place is as good as last – the league isn’t going to be won this side of Christmas, especially with a major tournament right in the middle of the season.
The expectation levels at Rangers have always been high but even Walter Smith, Dick Advocaat and Alex McLeish didn’t win every game in their best seasons, Giovanni van Bronckhorst has lost just twice domestically since replacing Steven Gerrard, both times against Celtic – one game he learned from and the other could’ve gone either way – it’s hardly a record that should seem him sacked, regardless of how pretty on the eye his football might be.