Rangers 3-1 Dundee United: Stale

Morning all, Rangers came away with a 3-1 victory at home to the Arabs last night.

The main surprise in the line-up was that Igamane replaced Bajrami as the number 10. A good change on paper, but in practice we saw Igamane have the same struggles in that role as we've already seen this season.

Our first half performance was vintage Rangers, we struggled to move the ball with any kind of fluency. United sat in a deep block, looking to hit us on the break. There wasn't too much in the way of ideas to actually penetrate the block. Diomande was our best tool for this as always, but he struggled to link things up in the way he normally does in the congested area in front of the opposition box.

There was that familiar defensive vulnerability about us too, and that showed when United broke through and Sam Dalby had a chance to put the Terrors one up. But sadly for them he was thwarted by Butland on his return to the starting eleven.

Sadly for Rangers, we conceded immediately from the resulting corner. Standard ball in, run across the front, flicked header, and that was that. 1 down at Ibrox again, there weren't enough fans in the stadium to really get angry, or it could have gone toxic.

There was an attempt to up the tempo after that, it didn't lead to much in the way of chances but the players were trying their best to get things moving. In truth our equaliser came completely out of the blue, Jefte had the ball out wide, looked up and whipped a truly exceptional cross the back post. Dessers rose highest and headed home to equalise. I was slightly confused at the world class cross from our Brazilian full back given he's not managed a cross at that level all season.

Dessers rising like a salmon to head home the equaliser

Half time came and went without any fanfare. I thought we'd need to lift it to find a goal, or rely on another moment of quality.

Eventually we started to create a few chances for Dessers. I think it would be an exaggeration to say we were battering the door down. But gaps started to appear as Dundee United began to tire.

Our breakthrough came after a ball inside found Diomande's run into the box, he wasn't able to take it in as he was clattered by the defender. The ref missed it initially, but it didn't take him long to give it once he went over to the monitor.

There seemed to be some confusion over who was going to take the penalty, but eventually Dessers stepped up and sent the keeper the wrong way.

At 2-1 the United heads seemed to drop. Shortly after we added our third, Raskin made a brilliant run beyond Cerny who played the Belgian in. Nico sized up the keeper before blasting it into the roof of the net. It was our best team move of the game and it was nice that it resulted in a goal.

There wasn't too much to report in the way of actual football after that. Cerny was subbed and was applauded on what is likely his Ibrox farewell before he returns to Wolfsburg.

Truthfully, aside from the slack defending on the goal, it was the kind of performance you'd expect against a lesser side at home. But all too often that hasn't been the standard this season.

I can't really be bothered watching Rangers go to Easter Road on Sunday. David Gray well and truly had Barry's pants down in the game at Ibrox, and I expect the same again, especially with our slow starts in recent games.

Let's try and enjoy our week until then.