Rangers got off to a flyer in the Scottish Premiership with a late win over Livingston.
But gaffer Gio van Bronckhorst has warned his side they’ll need to tighten up at the back ahead of their vital Champions League qualifier on Tuesday night. Gers travel to Belgium for the first leg against Pro-League runners up Union St-Gilloise on the back of a 2-1 victory in West Lothian.
After falling behind to an early Joel Nouble strike, second half goals from Scott Arfield and skipper James Tavernier sealed an opening day three points. Livi’s big front-man caused van Bronckhorst’s men problems all afternoon, particularly new centre-back John Souttar. The Scotland defender was culpable for Nouble’s opener and was eventually hooked in the second half. The Rangers boss was delighted to kick off the new campaign with a win but says they cannot concede a goal in the manner they did going forward.
Ahead of the midweek Euro tie, Van Bronckhorst said: “In the end, I”m really happy with the points.
“But the start of the game wasn’t good from our side. We didn’t look sharp for the goal against us.
“It took us out of the game and we didn’t play our normal game in the first half. We knew the danger Livingston had with the big striker up front who can make it very difficult.
“We said to the players that we had to be ready for the long balls and the duels. When they have a long ball, it cannot be that we don’t have any player making contact or trying to win the duel.
“The full-back won the ball for their goal without any pressure, which is impossible. The ball fell behind us so we weren’t good enough in anticipating it.
“It was a great goal for their side but it should be impossible for us to give that away. With the ball, we weren’t taking the right positions or zones at the right moments. But in the second half we did much better and created a lot of chances to score.
“I’m happy with the two goals because it means we have three vital points in the first game of the season. We changed it a little bit at half-time, getting three players behind Antonio Colak to get into the box. The subs today gave us the right energy at the right moments.”
Gers kicked off their league campaign with Jon McLaughlin in goals at Almondvale and MailSport understands the Scotland keeper will be Gers No.1 this season. Allan McGregor, who signed a one-year deal in the summer to extend his Ibrox stay, is understood to have been told he’ll continue to deputise for McLaughlin this season and will only start the domestic cup games.
After the game, Livingston boss Davie Martindale confessed that his side should probably have been reduced to 10 men when Australian full-back twice upended Scott Wright. Referee Don Robertson failed to show a second yellow, which prompted Martindale to sub his debutant, in fear of a red.
Gers also had a Colak goal ruled out with a tight offside call but van Bronckorst said: “For the offside goal, of course with VAR the referee will have help with it. And there was maybe a second yellow card for them in the first half. But I can’t complain too much because we just had to concentrate on our own game, dig deep and win the game.”
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