The list of essential additions being pursued by Rangers in the summer market is obviously topped by a striker capable of bringing focus to a scattergun attack lacking any real direction.
What a difference that will make to a team dragging themselves over the finish line of this seasonus horribilis down Govan way. As Michael Beale talks up the need for a rebuild, however, he has at least been honest enough to accept that a rethink – to a certain extent – might also be required, once he gets all his new recruits together in the playroom at Auchenhowie.
Because there are still a couple of structural and stylistic weaknesses undermining Rangers, as their drag of a 1-0 win over Aberdeen demonstrated. Despite Beale’s complaint about his boys being “the most wasteful team I’ve ever seen”, the truth is they hardly buried the Dons under a mountain of untaken opportunities. And you could easily argue that two of the game’s best chances fell to Luis 'Duk' Lopes.
Defensively, Rangers still look susceptible to any kind of pace on the break. Offensively, at least against Aberdeen, they were sluggish bordering on sloppy in phases.
Part of that was down to a lack of options available to Beale, who started the game without an out-and-out striker on the park, deploying Ianis Hagi as a false nine between wide players Rabbi Matondo and Fashion Sakala.
The problem with not having a natural penalty box predator in the side quickly became apparent. If you look at Photo 1, Ridvan Yilmaz – while not a patch on Borna Barisic in terms of delivery, admittedly - has actually turned back in disgust after shaping up to go down the line and whip the ball in...only to find none of the nominal front three making the right sort of run.
There were fleeting moments in the first half when Matondo and Sakala played closer together, almost like a traditional strike pairing, to break through an organised Dons defence (see Photo 2 and Photo 3).
But the home side were too often being forced to play passes through the eye of a needle in order to penetrate the Aberdeen lines. If Sakala had just held his wrong for half a heartbeat longer (Photo 4), Todd Cantwell – who would score with a sweet volley from a set-piece not long after – might well have been celebrating a surgical incision into the red ranks.
It would be wrong, however, to declare that all Aberdeen did was sit deep and look to break. Photos 5 and 6, from different stages of the game, show how they mixed things up by pressing high. To good effect.
But, of course, their biggest threat came when Rangers had all 11 outfielders sucked forward into the away half. Duk had a couple of great chances by simply turning and racing onto balls over the top, knowing he had the pace to beat Connor Goldson, Ben Davies and – when the latter limped off injured – substitute John Souttar.
While Barry Robson and most of the Aberdeen team were complaining about a potential penalty offence by Goldson on Duk, the thing that will worry Beale most about that incident is how easy it was for the livewire forward to exploit nothing more inventive than a long ball. Photo 7 shows the prelude to a harried and hassled Goldson tangling with his man just on the edge of the box.
Photo 8 is a snapshot of Duk simply leaving a flat, square and out-of-position central defensive pairing of Goldson and Davies for dead, again benefiting from a simple little ball over the top by Bojan Miovski. And, although they sagged significantly, Aberdeen still had chances to do damage to their hosts, with Photo 9 showing where Jonny Hayes SHOULD have put his pass to exploit a genuine opportunity.
A better team would have punished Rangers for that lack of organisation. A team like Celtic, this weekend’s visitors to Ibrox?
With Beale already admitting that he can’t wait for pre-season, Saturday’s “meaningless” big match must feel like he’s being sent out to fight a tiger armed with a peashooter.
Having effectively – and fairly – trashed Alfredo Morelos for his cameo appearance from the bench against Aberdeen, and with Antonio Colak still out injured, the Rangers boss knows he’s going in against the newly-crowned champions without a recognised No. 9.
That’s a problem. But not, in the short or even medium term, the only one facing Beale.
READ NEXT
