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Stunning stat that shows Rangers on right tracks to leave Gerrard flaw behind

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If there was ever one consistent complaint about this Rangers team under Steven Gerrard, it was that when we were up against it, we would resort to firing cross after cross after cross into the opposition box in the hope that one of them would fall to a team-mate, when it didn’t work, there was nothing more frustrating.

Now though, it looks as though we have a plan B, with one glaring statistic from the win against Sparta Prague proving that there is life after the old manager.

With just 11 crosses, we dropped by more than half the number of attempted balls that we played into the box against Brondby away from home and Ross County at home – the less said about the Hibs game the better – with 25 and 29 in total for the two games, that isn’t a coincidence.

By moving Joe Aribo, Ianis Hagi and Ryan Kent into a three man support unit behind Alfredo Morelos we instantly have more players capable of causing problems in the final third, there isn’t the same need or expectation on Borna Barisic and James Tavernier to get up and down in support and provide the ammunition.

It’s good to have another string to our attacking bow though because it now means that we will be harder to defend against, teams can’t just pack the box and limit the space, they will have to come out and commit more defenders it, at least, makes us an awful lot less predictable, which was one of the main reasons for our drop in form this season.

Obviously one game is a small sample size so it will be interesting to revisit the numbers in a few months but the early signs, and intent, suggest that a refreshing change is on the way.

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