I thought we had finally worked out how to beat teams like Dundee United in the Scottish Premiership.
Rangers fans can point the finger at Connor Goldson not reacting to Jamie Robson’s run, or at John Lundstram and James Tavernier for not sorting out who was tracking the full-back, but none of them were responsible for the defeat – the manager himself said “it’s on me” and I’d have to agree with him, the line-up and tactics were all wrong.
In our title winning campaign there were a few times when “we would have lost that last season” was muttered, Dundee United was a great example of the type of game that we found a way on more than one occasion, all it takes is a stroke of luck, a deflected pass in this case, and a draw is turned into a loss.
We just didn’t have enough depth to our attack, Ryan Kent was all over the pitch but he does his best work in the final third, in and around the box, that is where we need him, not on the half-way line.
Joe Aribo threatened at times but he frequently found himself surrounded by bodies, against a packed defence I always think he is better coming onto the ball with space to attack rather than receiving it with his back to goal or when a defence is set.
He’s similar to Ianis Hagi in that respect, the Romanian international is better at finding team-mates compared to Aribo’s ability to drive at defences and play 1-2s with players ahead of him, when we have both of them on the park there is just a better balance to the attack.
It’s all fair and well having extra speed in attack but – and it pains me to say it – look at Celtic’s 6-0 win over Dundee on Sunday, what they lacked in pace in midfield, they made up for in creativity, a lesson that, hopefully, our gaffer has learnt the hard way.