Dundee United 1-3 Rangers: little bit of a break from the norm

Rangers got back to winning ways away from home with a 3-1 victory at Tannadice. The main surprise in the lineup was Dessers starting alongside Igamane upfront. This allowed Hagi to play off the right hand side. Aside from that there was only Ridvans injury to leave us even shorter at the back.

The game started in the way we've become accustomed to when watching Rangers away from home. We were slack, we gave the ball away under limited pressure and looked a bit lost whenever we ventured past halfway.

Our vulnerability from set pieces was on show again. The Arabs hit the post from a corner in the first 10 minutes and that should have been a clear warning for the team and a chance to wake up.

Ofcourse we didn't and the opener came from a long throw into the box. Our defence scrambled to clear, failed, and when the ball fell to Stephen Dalby, he toe poked it into the roof of the net to put United one up.

1-0 to the Terrors and we looked just ourselves away from home. We looked ponderous whenever we got to the edge of the box. There was plenty of occasions when Rangers players opted to turn back instead of playing it forward. Hagi was a surprisingly big culprit given his normal aversion to doing anything that could be considered remotely safe in possession.

I'd started to think about what we'd have to change to make something happen, when out of the blue we had the equaliser. Hagi did well to keep the ball in and played it to Tav on the right, he rolled it into Diomandes feet on the edge of the opposition penalty area. The Ivorian dropped the shoulder, jinked left and then right before smashing in a fantastic strike through the crowd of players into the bottom corner.

Throughout the first half Diomande was one of the few players constantly trying to make things happen whenever he had the ball. So it felt right that he got us back on terms.

We ended the half the stronger of the two sides. It felt like we'd finally remembered that we were Rangers and they were Dundee United.

Despite the equaliser and strong end to the half I wasn't sure if we'd let the game pass us by, like we've done in the past against St Mirren and Dundee away from home.

I was pleased to see us keep the pressure up in the second half. We penned Dundee United in, constantly winning the ball back high up the pitch and sending dangerous balls into the area.

It was no surprise to see us take the lead early in the second half. It was the second phase of a Rangers corner, Hagi played a clever pass to Propper who doing a good job of remaining inconspicuous in the 18 yard box. The Dutch defender turned and got a shot away on his left foot. A Dundee United player tried to intervene and inadvertently diverted the ball past his own keeper.

A positive step was us taking a risk by leaving bodies in the box. I think Propper has had a solid couple of games, so it was nice to see him get a shot away early and get his reward.

We'd started the second half with purpose and we continued bucking the trend of this team away from home by hunting down a third goal to seal the 3 points.

Dessers probably should have sealed the deal himself a few minutes later when we broke from a corner and Igamane played the Nigerian striker in on goal. He tried to round the keeper but Walton did well to get his hands on the ball.

Our approach was not without risk, there were several promising breaks for the opposition in which we looked short at the back. The closest they came to an equaliser was Raskin somehow managing to strike the inside of the post in his own team's goal. It was a heart in mouth moment for the Belgian midfielder and it reminded us just how much we could with a third goal.

Given how sloppy we can be at the back, I think it's better for us to be gunning for an extra goal rather than sitting on a lead. Especially when we're away from home like yesterday.

The third goal eventually came from Cyriel Dessers. Lovelace, fresh from the bench, played in Dessers first time after collecting a pass from Bajrami that looked an inch behind him. The striker looked a little bit wide of the goal, but he produced a truly fantastic left footed finish that left the keeper grasping at thin air.

The Dundee United heads dropped at this point and Clement produced one last surprise by giving a young player minutes without an injury forcing his hand. Paul Nsio made his league debut for Rangers and had some nice touches. I actually remember him coming off the bench for about 2 minutes in the League cup against Queen of the South in 2022. Hopefully there's not as large of a gap between this appearance and his next one.

There was one black mark on the game however. After a foul from Kevin Holt on Diomande, the referee chose to send the scorer of Rangers' equaliser off. Upon watching the replay it was hard to see why Nick Walsh felt the offence was worthy of a red card. VAR then called him to the monitor and he bizarrely stuck to his decision. Unless I'm mistaken that's only the second time a referee has elected not to change his decision in Scotland when sent to the monitor. The other one also came against Rangers, last season when Dujon Sterling saw red for a challenge in our 2-1 win over Aberdeen at Ibrox.

Clement was quick to say that we plan to appeal the decision. But who knows if it will get overturned retrospectively.

It's hard to know how to react to the performance yesterday. We've seen false dawns under Clement before. And the number of chances we conceded isn't really sustainable long term, but we kept control for most of the game and created chances with much more fluency than normal. There's maybe some kind of middle ground to be had, let's hope Clement sees that and starts to work towards it.

It's no surprise to hear me praise Igamane but he was asked to play as the deeper of the two forwards today in the absence of Danilo. He's not really done that before but took to the role like a duck to water. He popped up between the lines even more than usual and spun the United midfield and backline so many times he probably gave them whiplash. It wasn't his best game in terms of turning those great takes into goals or chances. But it shows how talented he is that he was still one of our best players. And the little flick past Declan Gallagher was worth the price of admission alone.

Nedim Bajrami continued his stuttering form as he was restored to the left side of midfield following a run of games in the number 10 position. His execution leaves a lot to be desired, but I thought he consistently got on the ball in good areas which is a slight improvement.

I certainly don't plan to get too excited about the result and performance in one game. We need to see quite a few more positives, consistently before we can start planning any parades.... wait, what's that? Kieron Dowell is going to Birmingham on a loan to buy? Excuse me folks, I have a bus to rent for our treble winning parade.