Rangers' Problems Amplified After McCoist Departure

With the events of the last week, within which Ally McCoist was placed on gardening leave, it is Kenny McDowall who is now tasked with guiding this Rangers side through the remainder of a turbulent season.

If the Rangers supporters thought that an uninspiring appointment, albeit temporary, they would be just as underwhelmed when they saw the caretaker boss’s first team selection. McDowall was given the opportunity to put his own stamp on the current side. He could have changed the shape and introduced some players that found appearances difficult to come by under McCoist. Instead he picked exactly the same personnel in exactly the same archaic formation as has become the norm at Rangers this season.

Nicky Clark partnered Kenny Miller in the attack of a 4-4-2, which saw the centre of their midfield drowned by the 4-3-1-2 of Hibernian. With Dominique Malonga and Jason Cummings taking turns to drop deep, this meant even more of a mismatch in the centre of midfield and the problem was highlighted early in the match when both Nicky Law and Ian Black were caught out up the pitch as Hibs countered.

The shape of the Hibernian midfield and the advanced nature of their full-backs meant that they contained sufficient width when attacking – evidenced by the performances of David Gray and Lewis Stevenson – and enough cover when defending.

Much of the positivity on the progression of Stubbs’s side has been focused on the performances of Scott Allan and today was no different. Due to Hibs' numerical advantage, he was free to dictate play for most of the match and was involved in all four goals. For the opener, Allan burst forward off the ball and dragged Stevie Smith into the centre to pick him up. This created space for David Gray to collect the ball and fire Hibs ahead after 8 minutes.

For the second goal, Smith was in position when Allan collected the ball but failed to get close enough to stop the cross. Allan’s ball found Craig, who volleyed back for Cummings to tap into an open goal. Allan then capped off a majestic performance with two clever assists in the second half to give Hibernian a 4-0 victory.

It should not be surprising to see Hibs dominate this match as Alan Stubbs has won the tactical battle in many of the big matches this season. He was dominating McCoist – changing his formation at the correct time – before Danny Handling was sent off  in the Petrofac Training Cup at the start of the season and, much like this match, he blitzed Rangers in the first half of the previous league meeting between the sides.

Furthermore, he more than matched Hearts for large parts of the opening Edinburgh Derby of the season and, but for an injury-time wonder strike, was seconds away from victory in the second at Easter Road.

Rangers, by contrast, have been found wanting in most of the big matches in the Championship this season. Even in the matches they have edged the initial tactical battle – the recent performance at Tynecastle, for instance – they have still gone on to lose the match. In four Championship matches versus Hearts and Hibs this season, Rangers have lost all four.

And there is nothing in the pre- or post-match interviews of McDowall, nor from the performance of the team, to suggest that he is the man to inject some modernity into the Rangers tactics. It is rather telling by his comments after the match, in which he revealed that he is being “told to carry on”, that he is either unwilling or unable to take charge of this Rangers side.

McCoist liked his team to knock the ball into the channels and work it down the wings, always looking for the overlap from the full-backs and that is exactly what we got from McDowall in this match. If further confirmation was needed that working the ball wide and crossing the ball as often as possible hasn't worked, you only have to look at the full-time statistics: Rangers had 7 attempts with 1 on target - Hibernian had the same amount of efforts but hit the target 5 times - and had 8 corners to Hibernian’s 0.

One of the reasons most of the Rangers play was focused down the wings was to avoid the congested central areas in which they were outnumbered. It appeared that McDowall had identified this when Kyle Hutton was stripped and ready to come on after 34 minutes. Unfortunately for Rangers, he hadn't and Hutton was nothing more than a like-for-like replacement for Ian Black before the former Hearts man collected a second yellow card. The change may have improved the Rangers performance for a short period, but the same issues remained.

Even the half-time substitution made little sense. Kris Boyd was introduced for Fraser Aird but instead of changing the shape of the side, Clark was moved to the right of midfield in the same formation that Rangers have played for about 37 years now.

It is perplexing that a qualified football coach, despite his lack of experience as a football manager, failed to notice or rectify the major tactical issue his side faced in the match. Rangers had two strikers on the pitch for the whole of the match, yet their manager failed to notice that having two strikers is useless if you cannot win the ball when out of possession or else supply them when in possession.

Hearts 0 Rangers 2

Rangers put in another excellent defensive display away from home and continued their remarkable run of six wins from six on the road, scoring fourteen and failing to concede in the process.  It was a rather drab performance from Hearts, although they could have levelled at 1-0 had the ball fallen to a more composed striker of the ball than Adrian Mrowiec midway through the second half.

Ally McCoist changed the shape of his side for this visit to Tynecastle, ditching his usual 4-4-2 in favour of a 4-4-1-1, which matched Hearts man-for-man in the centre of the pitch - something Neil Lennon failed to execute in Celtic’s recent defeat at the same ground.

Another notable feature of the Rangers formation saw two left-backs start on the left – Sasa Papac was deployed at left-midfield – and Maurice Edu moved out to the right of midfield.  Hearts have gained a fair amount of success from their advancing full-backs this season and the use of two defensive-minded players as their direct opponents, as well as a three-man central midfield, displayed McCoist’s willingness to prioritise stopping his opponents from playing.

There was little to note about the Hearts formation.  For the third successive match, Paulo Sergio fielded the same starting eleven in a 4-3-3 formation.

Scrappy first half

Hearts dominated the early stages of a first half more noteworthy for its stop-start nature and cynical fouls than any football on display.  Steven Whittaker picked up an early booking and was perhaps lucky to stay on the pitch after a late foul on David Templeton.

This came after he had helped his side take the lead, however.  The former Hibernian full-back collected the ball from Edu around the halfway line and drove towards the Hearts penalty area.  He evaded the challenge, or lack thereof, from no fewer than four Hearts players before feeding Steven Naismith, who struck the ball through the legs of the advancing Marian Kello.

Naismith started the match just off Kyle Lafferty in attack and was a handful for the Hearts defence all afternoon through his movement and intelligent off-the-ball runs.  Eggert Jonsson was the man tasked with man-marking the Scotland international but, for the goal, allowed him to slip free when attempting to stop the run of Whittaker.  Naismith darted into space and finished for his eighth of the season, taking him to the top of the scoring charts.

Hearts then finished the half the stronger side, as they had started the match, but failed to trouble Alan McGregor in the Rangers goal, with the exception of a long-range Rudi Skacel effort.  Rangers, as they have done for many of their away matches this season, sat on their lead and attempted to hit their opponents on the counter attack.

Second half

Rangers’ focus was to get as many men behind the ball as possible for the vast majority of the second half, allowing Hearts plenty of possession.  Hearts managed to carve out two great opportunities – one at 1-0, another at 2-0 – but for all their possession they, for the most part, struggled to break Rangers down.

The main reason for this, mentioned earlier, was the set up of the Rangers side.  Hearts had little joy down the flanks due to the presence of Edu and Papac as auxiliary wide-midfielders.  The Hearts full-backs rarely threatened in advanced areas and both had poor matches, especially Danny Grainger.

Further to this, Hearts were denied space in the centre of the pitch and were rarely able to work the ball through central areas.  Sergio waited until almost eighty minutes had elapsed before making a substitution, sending on Mehdi Taouil for Jonsson.  Taouil is the type of player that can take the ball into feet and find a pass or take the ball past opponents when space is at a premium and it is a change the Hearts manager maybe should have considered making much earlier in the match.

A final reason for the poor performance was the decision-making of some of the Hearts players.  They often elected to play a long ball, a long diagonal pass or a switch of play when there was often a much simpler, shorter passing option available.  On several occasions a Hearts player would make themselves available for a pass in the centre of the pitch yet were ignored.  The Hearts full-backs were particularly guilty of this and Skacel was one player who became visibly frustrated with his teammates.

This is not to take anything away from the Rangers performance.   Knowing the recent form of Hearts at Tynecastle, McCoist intelligently set up his side to stop their opponents and made the right changes at the right time.

After a spell where Hearts greatly dominated possession, McCoist responded by sending on Nikica Jelavic and Gregg Wylde for Lafferty and Papac.  Not only did this produce a goal within three minutes – Carlos Bocanegra picking out Jelavic with a ball over the top of the Hearts defence – it gave Rangers two extra players to target in the final third that could keep the ball in advanced areas something Lafferty had failed to do in his seventy-odd minutes on the pitch.

Conclusion

Without doubt, McCoist won the tactical battle from start to finish.  Stopping the Hearts full-backs from influencing the game and matching the home side man-for-man in the centre of midfield meant Hearts were largely ineffective and, with players like Naismith in attack always likely to finish one of his side’s chances, it culminated in a very efficient performance from the champions.

Hearts shouldn’t be too discouraged from their performance.  Even though they didn’t create much and were woeful in front of goal when they did, they were simply defeated by a better side with a better strategy.  The one worrying thing from a Hearts point of view was their manager’s lack of a plan B and hesitancy in making changes earlier.

Dundee United 0 Rangers 1

Peter Houston was missing Sean Dillon through injury and replaced him at right-back with Keith Watson.  He made two other changes from the 3-3 draw with St. Johnstone, replacing Barry Douglas and Stuart Armstrong with Scott Robertson and Danny Swanson.  They lined up 4-3-3 with a very fluid central midfield three.  Robertson moved from side-to-side across the pitch with Willo Flood and John Rankin taking turns to burst forward from midfield.

Ally McCoist was without Nikica Jelavic - the striker was injured whilst on international duty with Croatia - and Ross Perry was dropped to the bench which meant that Steven Whittaker and Juan Manuel Ortiz were restored to the starting line up, also in a 4-3-3 formation.  Steven Naismith was deployed in a deeper central midfield role than usual with Maurice Edu patrolling in front of the back four.  Edu actually had one of his better matches in a Rangers shirt, winning the ball well on several occasions and playing simple sideways passes.

The match took a while to settle in a very expansive first half.  Rangers were more attacking than they have been in recent away matches but struggled to make the ball stick in attacking areas, while Dundee United looked threatening from set-pieces and shots from just outside the box.

Dundee United’s formation from middle to front was very fluid.  The middle three have already been mentioned above and, added to this, Swanson would look to cut into the centre of the pitch as often as possible while Jonny Russell regularly moved towards the lone striker Lauri Dalla Valle to offer support.  Dalla Valle himself would look to drop deep and link play.

Russell red card

Rangers were handed a man advantage when Russell stupidly aimed a headbutt towards Kirk Broadfoot.  The ordering off saw Swanson moved over to the right and Rankin pushed out to the right in a 4-4-1 formation.

The consequence was that the Rangers midfield now had much more time on the ball and space to exploit as their Dundee United counterparts chose to now standoff, as opposed to pressurising, them.  As well as this, Steven Naismith was pushed into a more advanced position, meaning the Rangers formation now resembled more of a 4-2-3-1.

Rangers almost capitalised when Edu scooped a delightful ball over the top for Naismith to run on to.  He controlled well but failed to steer his strike on target.

Perhaps surprisingly, Dundee United finished the half the stronger of the sides, choosing to press their opponents more as the half came to a close, and should have taken the lead from another set-piece opportunity.

Second half

Peter Houston sent his side out in a 4-5-0, more precisely 4-3-2-0, at the start of the second half with the original central midfield three restored.  Dalla Valle and Swanson were fielded wide but were given free rein to drift infield and across the attacking areas.

United now matched Rangers man-for-man in the centre of midfield once more and had wide men tracking back but, counterintuitively, conceded three chances in quick succession early in the second half, more than they had in the fifteen minutes they played with only two players in central midfield.

The home side had failed to create anything resembling a chance in this time and responded with another change in formation.  A few minutes before Rangers took the lead, Houston moved Dalla Valle back into a striking role with Swanson just behind in a 4-3-1-1 formation.  Swanson now looked to drop deep and collect the ball before launching attacks.

This left United vulnerable down the flanks, especially with the Rangers full-backs pushing on and it was no surprise that the Rangers goal came from a delivery from a wide area.

Gregg Wylde had stayed on the right side of the pitch following the breakdown of a corner and received the ball from Whittaker after he surged forward from the halfway line.  The young winger cut onto his left foot and sent a wonderful inswinging cross from deep.  Kyle Lafferty got in behind Watson before powering a header past the hapless Dusan Pernis.

It was the first, and only, good delivery Wylde managed in the entire match and must have persuaded his manager to at least consider deploying him on this side.  On the left he has the pace to beat most full-backs he comes up against, however, at speed he seems to lack the composure to pick out a teammate in the box.  Further, inswinging crosses seem to carry more of a threat when fired into the danger area.

Dundee United brought on the impressive Ryan Dow for Dalla Valle and pushed further up the pitch in an attempt to salvage something from the match.  They came close late on when a low, bobbling effort from Rankin shaved the outside of the post but they left themselves exposed and, in truth, were lucky not to concede again, especially when Steven Davis saw his shot come back off both posts.

Conclusion

The match was pretty even until Russell inexplicably got himself ordered off.  United then finished the half stronger but as soon as the second half was underway, it was pretty clear there was only going to be one winner.

Dundee United manager Peter Houston tinkered with his formation a few times after being reduced to ten men – he experimented, firstly, with a 4-4-1 before moving to a 4-3-2-0 at the start of the second half and finally with a 4-3-1-1 – but couldn’t prevent his side from conceding numerous chances.

Rangers were far more direct and attacking than they have been in their previous away matches this season, especially after going ahead.  In the matches versus St. Johnstone and Inverness, the defending champions have resorted to a counter-attacking approach after taking the lead.  Today, perhaps due to the fact their opponents were down to ten men, they continued to attack and were unlucky not to increase their margin of victory.

Rangers 1 Maribor 1 (2-3 on aggregate)

Rangers huffed and puffed against a mediocre Maribor side but failed to take enough of their chances to progress.  Maribor sat behind the ball for most of the ninety minutes and hit Rangers with a sucker-punch early in the second half, which proved decisive in the outcome of the tie.

Ally McCoist was without Lee McCulloch, Davie Weir, Sasa Papac, Jordan McMillan and Kyle Bartley through injury, and was also missing Steven Naismith and Steven Whittaker through suspension.  As well as this, Ross Perry was named on the bench, meaning that Carlos Bocanegra, Maurice Edu and Kirk Broadfoot were restored to the starting line up as McCoist demonstrated his desire to field experience over youth.  They lined up in their usual 4-4-1-1 formation.

Maribor made one change from the 2-1 victory in Slovenia, Ales Mejac missed out and was replaced by Nejc Potokar at right-back.  They lined up in a 4-4-2 formation with Zelko Filipovic sitting just ahead of the back four and Dalibor Volas dropping off Rober Beric in attack.  When in possession, the wide men of Maribor would come inside – like Villarreal’s interiores – and overload the central areas.

With a first-leg lead to protect, it was no surprise that Maribor’s strategy was to sit as many men behind the ball as possible while refusing to pressure their opponents unless they moved past the halfway line.

Rangers, on the other hand, looked to pass the ball out from the back – in a similar fashion to the win in Inverness – with Steven Davis the player dropping to collect the ball from the centre-backs.  And just like that match in the Highlands, Rangers lacked a cutting edge in front of goal

Their approach was to get Gregg Wylde on the ball as much as possible and two of his crosses in the first twenty minutes should have been converted.  Kyle Lafferty failed to commit himself to the first in the seventh minute, and Edu later sent his free header straight into the arms of Jasmin Handanovic.

Added to this, Rangers enjoyed a succession of corners but failed to take advantage of Maribor’s vulnerability in these situations.

Rangers’ injury woes were added to when Perry replaced Lee Wallace around five minutes before half-time.  The enforced change meant that Bocanegra was moved to the left-back and from that point on, Rangers missed the thrust Wallace had provided from that position and, relatedly, the support and overlap for Wylde.

Nikica Jelavic and Lafferty dovetailed throughout the first half, linked up well at times and between them created another two excellent opportunities that Lafferty squandered, one of which was a one-on-one with the goalkeeper on the stroke of half-time.

Second half

Whereas most of Rangers’ play in the first half was focused through Wylde on the left, two chances early in the second half were created down the right, both involving Kirk Broadfoot, which Lafferty and Davis failed to trouble Handanovic with.

Rangers were then made to regret their missed chances when Volas opened the scoring on fifty-five minutes. 

The few times Maribor found themselves in possession in advanced positions, their most dangerous player was Dejan Mezga – one of the interiors – who would start wide, drift inside to collect the ball and beat players.  He was fed half way inside the Rangers half and managed to draw three Rangers players towards him before slipping the ball to Aleds Mertelj.  The twenty-four year old then took advantage of the space afforded to him by the holdup play of Mezga and drove at the Rangers defence before finding Volas, who finished in the bottom corner.

If Maribor were not ultra-defensive before, a 1-0 lead (and 3-1 aggregate lead) meant that they were now, and with as many time-wasting tactics as possible thrown in.

Rangers panicked for a short spell but then soon settled into their passing that had brought about many opportunities until then.

One player who had been largely ineffective was Juan Manuel Ortiz and he was replaced by David Healy with just over twenty-minutes remaining.  Lafferty was moved out to the right but increasingly found himself in central positions alongside Jelavic and Healy as the match entered its final stages.

Rangers did manage to pull a goal back, when Bocanegra bundled in a Wylde corner, but a late rally couldn’t save their European blushes.  This time, of the chances created, Healy was the most culpable as he displayed a severe lack of composure when one-on-one with Handanovic.

Conclusion

McCoist’s tactics are hard to argue with: His side created enough chances to win two or three Europa League ties, they just failed to take them.

Rangers looked to get the ball wide to Wylde and hit their two large strikers with early crosses.  As well as this, Lafferty and Jelavic would take turns to drop deep and wide, link play and draw defenders out of position.

All this worked, it was the finishing that let them down.

In saying that, it wasn’t the most interesting match tactically.  Maribor sat ten men behind the ball in attempt to stifle Rangers.  It didn’t work as Rangers carved out several clear-cut opportunities.  Their Euro exit must be blamed on poor finishing, rather than a fantastic defensive performance from Maribor.

Rangers 1 Hearts 1

Rangers marked the unfurling of the league flag with a 1-1 at home to Hearts.  In his first competitive match in charge, Ally McCoist brought in Kirk Broadfoot for the suspended David Weir and new-signing Juan Manuel Ortiz for the injured Kyle Lafferty.  He lined up his side in a lopsided 4-4-1-1 formation, with Steven Davis tucking in from the right of midfield and Ortiz as an out-and-out winger on the opposite flank.  Steven Naismith played behind Nikica Jelavic in attack.

Hearts were without the injured duo of Kevin Kyle and Andy Driver and new-signing Jamie Hamill was suspended, meaning that Ryan McGowan came in a right-back.  Other new signings featured in the now familiar 4-2-3-1 preferred by manager Jim Jefferies.  Danny Grainger started at left back after Lee Wallace’s departure to Rangers, Mehdi Taouil began on the right of an attacking midfield three and John Sutton led the line.  After only eight minutes, probably because he set foot in Ibrox, Andy Webster left the field injured and was replaced by Adrian Mrowiec with Eggert Jonsson moving into central defence.

Left-sided battles

The first half can be summed up by two intriguing battles.  Rangers’ formation was such that with Davis tucking in, Steven Whittaker was afforded the space to get forward and support the Rangers attack.  Hearts’ strategy early on, whether pre-planned or else responsive to Whittaker’s forays up the pitch, was to move the ball to David Templeton, exploit the vacated space and get him running at the Rangers defence.  Even when Whittaker remained in position, Templeton often got the better of him, cutting inside the Scotland international time and time again.

Similarly, Rangers looked to get the ball out to Ortiz - with Naismith moving towards the left to link up - but the Spaniard’s runs were thwarted by the impressive McGowan.  Not only did McGowan manage to prevent Ortiz from cutting in on to his stronger foot, he stopped him from getting a cross in on all but one occasion, which came in the second half.

Hearts opened the scoring on sixteen minutes when Obua headed home a Grainger corner.  The big Ugandan started behind Sutton in attack and had perhaps his best game in a Hearts jersey.  He was the main playmaker in the Hearts side, was composed in possession and gave Lee McCulloch and Maurice Edu in the centre of Rangers’ midfield a torrid time.

The goal seemed to instil a sense of urgency in Rangers whose best attacking player up to that point had been Madjid Bougherra, who would look to play one-twos with his teammates and drive at the Hearts defence.  Davis was now coming inside to collect the ball and start off attacks but most of the time Rangers were reduced to hitting Jelavic early with long diagonal balls.

Hearts regained the momentum shortly afterwards and were the much better side in the first half.  One of the main reasons for this was how hard they worked off the ball.  When out of possession, Hearts were quick to get everyone (sometimes with the exception of Sutton) behind the ball and deny Rangers space.  Rangers didn’t get the same level of energy when tracking back from the likes of Naismith and Ortiz.

Second half

Rangers changed their shape at half-time, moving Davis into the centre and Naismith out to the right wing.  Their shape now resembled 4-3-3 and they instantly improved, creating three great chances within five minutes of the restart.

The change in shape gave Rangers the edge for a few reasons.  Firstly, they now matched Hearts 3v3 in the centre of the pitch, which at times was 3v2 to their advantage as Obua was positioned too high up the pitch.  Secondly, Davis was now in his more suited role in the centre of midfield and was able to dictate.

Lastly, and perhaps most significantly, with a player on each wing, Rangers were able to stretch the Hearts defence and take advantage of the space vacated.  A quick switch of play saw Ortiz cut inside McGowan and find Naismith in space but he shot over.

Even though Naismith was now positioned on the right, he retained from last season his tendency to drift into the centre and as a consequence he was involved in most of Rangers’ chances.  As well as missing the chance referred to above, he converted Papac’s cross to equalise on fifty-six minutes.

It was the first time Papac had got into an advanced position in the match and it brought about a goal.  The only other time he got forward, late in the match, he should have scored to secure all three points.

Rangers continued to dominate the second half.  The loss of Templeton early in the second half, due to a head knock sustained in the first half, meant that Hearts lost some of their attacking threat.  Stephen Elliott was brought on to replace him but lacks the drive and ability to take on opponents as effectively.  As a result Hearts struggled to keep possession as well as they had in the first half.  In saying that, Whittaker didn’t get forward much in the second period so it is unclear whether Templeton would have been as effective anyway.

Conclusion

In the end a draw was a fair result with each side dominating one half of the match.  Hearts could have headed into the break more than a goal up and Rangers could have easily converted one or two more of their second half chances.

The first half, dominated by Hearts, was marked by the battles between the respective left-wingers and right-backs.  Templeton took advantage of a poor display from Whittaker and McGowan nullified the threat of Ortiz.  However, a change in formation at half-time saw Rangers create several chances within minutes of the restart and their pressure led to the equaliser.

The most worrying thing from a Rangers point of view is the lack of depth in the squad.  Their bench mostly consisted of younger players and the only substitute used was Gregg Wylde, who came on for Ortiz.  The 20-year-old impressed but the lack of potential match winners in reserve must worry McCoist even at this stage.