Giovanni van Bronckhorst reflected that the margin of victory was too close based on the game that unfolded on Saturday against Dundee United but there wasn’t enough critique of the performance that was witnessed.
As we are now accustomed to, Rangers under Gio can go from competing and having a go against Europe’s best, to underwhelming and over-respecting opponents of a much lesser quality in the SPFL Premiership.
The narrow 2-1 win over manager-less Dundee United was a prime example of this. A decent start brought a goal from Antonio Colak that should have opened the floodgates. Instead, Rangers laboured and the play became predictably dull. The second half was similar with a quick second after the break but it wasn’t capitalised on, the slump came again, allowing the visitors back into the game and they got perilously close to an equaliser with the match in added on time.
The manager told Rangers TV after the game:
“I think this game was too close until the end, as with the 2-0 advantage in the second half, we should have extended the lead more and in the last minutes we were under pressure not to concede a second goal.”
It was too close, but this is typical of Gio’s Rangers team and his way of playing.
After seven games so far this season, the team has recorded five wins, one draw and a loss with a goal difference of eight – whilst Celtic missed their chance to go five points clear with a win at St Mirren on Sunday – but they do boast a massive goal difference of 22 compare to 8 for Rangers.
Beyond that, the persona and impact of both teams in the Premiership is so different, so far. Something has to give, sooner or later. The unexpected bonus of the two point bounce at the weekend has to count for something in the weeks ahead or the writing will be on the wall.
Rangers next five games are as follows:
Hearts Away, Liverpool Away, St Mirren Home, Liverpool Home, Motherwell Away.
The Champions League ‘Battle of Britain’ ties will take care of themselves as the cliche goes but it is those league ties that really matter at this stage. Two very tricky away matches to start and end the run. Rangers and Gio need to take full points from them or the noise will get louder.
That noise is specifically about the future viability of Giovanni van Bronckhorst as Rangers manager.