This season hasn’t quite been two steps forward and one back, more like one forward and one back, however, if we want to win the league we will have to start taking steps in the right direction without any detours.
One such issue has to be getting consistency of selection and hoping that we can keep key creative and goal scoring players fit and available.
Writing for The Rangers Review in an early season analysis, Joshua Barrie has detailed what has gone right, and wrong, so far and that two players in particular could be hugely important:
“(Tom) Lawrence could be back after the international break and going forward, it feels imperative that both he and (Malik) Tillman nail down the attacking midfield slots to alleviate Rangers’ struggles domestically.
“When domestic performances became stodgy last season, it was usually owing to a lack of creativity and goalscorers in midfield. It seems as though (Giovanni) van Bronckhorst needs to get the right personnel in this area to inject tempo and threat into his controlled style of play.
“He will hope to use the international break as a moment to reset and improve. While only two points behind, his team can only rely on themselves if they want to win this league title and improving the attacking play is a non-negotiable for such ambition to be realised.”
What Tillman and Lawrence both do is offer α goal threat and creativity from the middle of the pitch, and an alternative to throwing crosses in from the wing.
It’s no real surprise that we haven’t been as prolific when Lawrence has been missing, he’s the glue that joins the midfield and attack and not just in terms of his own individual contribution.
Barrie is right, having the two playmakers back in the starting XI gives the team an entirely different perspective from the first whistle, both look to go forwards when in possession rather than playing the percentages, we have also looked at our best with the hand brake off this season, let’s hope Gio has the tools to implement α more attacking plan when proper football returns next weekend.