Kilmarnock 2-4 Rangers: Blockbuster beginning

Morning all, that was an interesting start to life as Rangers manager for Barry and co. Rangers eventually prevailed over a predictably fired up Kilmarnock side that relished the chance to ruin Barry Ferguson’s first game as interim boss. It wasn’t plain sailing by any means, but 3 points are hard to argue with. I’m going to be speaking more about the good and bad of the performance, but there’s no doubt that the team showed some of the resilience that’s been missing in recent weeks to come back and get the win at a tough place to go in Rugby Park.

When the line-up was announced I wasn’t too surprised, but it was about what shape and set up we’d see. I thought it could have been a 433 or 442, I found the prospect of seeing the 4231 unlikely. I was surprised to see us appear in a 424 shape in possession, it’s certainly a bold way to approach a tough away game. But did it work?

Well for the first 30 minutes, absolutely not. There’s no doubt that playing such an ambitious line-up puts a lot of pressure on the defenders as they can be the last line of defence even more than usual. It’s fair to say that the defence responded to this pressure by being poor in the duel and struggling to deal with any of the pressure from Kilmarnock. I have sympathy for the backline, but I’m not against the idea of taking the risk of leaving what is sometimes just a back 2 to deal with breaks and pressure. Ange Postecoglue took that approach at Celtic and you can’t say it didn’t work out for him.

The front 4 looked a bit disconnected from the rest of the team and I thought that initially there weren’t many signs of the team forging that connection on their own. This wasn’t helped by going 2 goals down in such a soft manner. The third Kilmarnock corner of the game was swung in towards the back post, Propper had tripped, leaving Jo Wright free to head Killie in front. The home crowd had been up for the match early doors, despite having what looked like quite a few empty seats. It’s fair to say that the crowd were baying for blood by this point.

I think as the away team you should normally try and take the sting out of the atmosphere at this point. Slow things down, maybe be a bit more compact, let the home team waste their energy looking for a second, don’t be sloppy on the ball or take risks. So I wasn’t particularly surprised to see a defensive mix-up between Nsiala and Raskin give Brad Lyons the chance to make it 2-0, which he took with aplomb.

Two goals down in an away game, home crowd on your back, and the defence having a shocker. You couldn’t have imagined a tougher start for Barry Ferguson. At this point something needed to change, unfortunately for Clinton Nsiala, he was the change. The Frenchman was hooked for Ridvan Yilmaz, with Tav shuffling into right centre back and the Turk taking the right back berth as he has a few times this season.

That move seemed to settle us down a little bit. Nsiala had been terrible but honestly Propper and Jefte should count themselves lucky they hadn’t been the ones on the chopping block. Jefte in particular seems to really struggle to do the simple things at the moment, I wonder if his concentration has dipped thanks to his agent feeding him news about the Chelsea links in January.

The impact of the substitution was felt immediately when we got back into the game minutes later with what felt like our first proper move of the game. The ball was played into Hamza Igamane, who stepped inside his man and was fouled, the ref played advantage and the ball fell to Diomande. The Ivorian played a brilliant through ball for a well timed Vaclav Cerny run, the Czech winger sized up the Kilmarnock keeper before slotting it past him.

This goal was actually a promising sign of improvement, there were more than a few issues about the approach and performance of the team. But when we lost 1-0 at Rugby Park earlier in the season, one of the most infuriating things about the match had been the way we struggled to get in behind on the occasions Kilmarnock left space in behind. I remember a break away with Dessers that he managed to slow down enough to let the full opposition eleven overtake him. The benefits of a 424 are that when the opposition blinks and leaves space, you normally have 2/3 options to find a forward getting in behind. Cerny took the chance himself but we had swiftly turned a ball into one of the strikers into a 2 on 1 opportunity as Dessers had made a similarly good run.

Kilmarnock had been stung by the goal and the manner in which it was conceded. So naturally they played with a lot more caution for the 10 minutes preceding half time. When the teams went in for the break everyone could have told you the respective manager’s team talks. McInnes would be telling his players to tighten up and protect what they have, banking on some of their direct play leading to a mistake as Rangers pushed for the equaliser. Barry will have been telling the players to step up in winning duels and actually earn the right to play, equally Kilmarnock blinking before half time gives the momentum to Rangers for the second period.

The team started the second half with some endeavour and forward thinking play. An early corner won by Hagi (controversially) was headed home through the keeper's legs by Cyriel Dessers and the Killie players looked worried.

We'd add to their worries shortly after a great Yilmaz ball over the defence put Dessers in who finished absolutely brilliantly with his side foot. The turnaround was complete and the team had answered some serious questions that had been poised by Kilmarnock. Could they keep the lead though?

The game became far more stretched at this point, Rangers continued to hunt for opportunities but they seemed few and far between. The manager made a raft of substitutions to try and freshen things up for Rangers. One of the players introduced made the game comfortable late on. A promising Rangers break lead by Dio which finished with Bajrami side-footing first time from a brilliant pass from our number 10.

Dio really flourished after that first 30 minutes, his two assists were excellent and we are a better team when we can get him on the ball in advanced positions. We all saw how happy Barry was with his performance, it's clear that with his quality we should be giving him the platform to truly affect the game.

The desire and commitment from the players to get back into the game was good to see, no one wants to lose a game of football of course, but they've certainly looked it at some points this season.

I watched the managers post match interview on Sky, for me he's already had to repeat himself a lot. I'd like to see him get some room to breathe, he will hopefully have more to say about this team by the weekend.

Overall I felt like there was plenty of good and bad to be seen in this performance. The first 30 minutes can't only be the leftover effect from Clement, but equally the team deserves credit for sticking to the game plan once things settled down. It's far too early to get a read on any long term trends in this team though.

I'll have some more thoughts on the potential shape of the team going forward by this weekends game. But I don't think the 424 is particularly sustainable for league games, we will need to wait and see though.

One last note for James Tavernier, he was comforting Clinton Nsiala at the final whistle on what was a tough night for the Frenchman. It's great leadership and shows why he's so popular among the players.

That's all for the day, droned on long enough already. 4 goals away from home and 3 points are always welcome, lets see if that trend can continue.