If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got – except in football because, sooner or later, teams will figure you out.
This appears to be the case with Rangers so far this season, a mixture of injuries, Covid-19 protocols and players missing pre-season has led to a far from ideal start to the campaign – one that has rarely, if ever, seen us truly hit top form.
Alfredo Morelos has been consistently good and Kemar Roofe has looked sharp but we simply aren’t supplying them with enough good quality chances, a half fit Ryan Kent has really struggled to make any impact and but for Ianis Hagi and Scott Wright’s isolation periods probably would have found himself on the bench by now.
Our midfield has looked stale too, Steven Davis, Glen Kamara and Joe Aribo have played a lot of football in the last 12 months and for all that their individual talents shouldn’t be questioned, things need to be freshened up in the engine room – either tactically or with a change of personnel.
We have lacked an intensity this season that has been a clear directive from the management team given the level of drop off, we play our best football higher up the park, winning turnovers and attacking defences in transition and there just hasn’t been enough of it so far.
It’s like we’re playing with the handbrake on.
Confidence breeds confidence. One good performance rolls onto the next and so on.
There are some tough fixtures coming up and if we are passive, we’ll get punished, it’s as simple as that, but, if we play anywhere near the level that we are capable of, it could set us up for the whole season – starting with Motherwell tomorrow.