Rangers 6-0 Ross County: A Saturday Stag-hunt

I was cautious in my expectations in the match preview yesterday, while I definitely felt that Ross County were there for the taking, I think I'd be reaching to suggest that I was saying we'd win 6-0.

If it feels like a long time since we've seen Rangers score 6 in the league, it's because that is the case. The last time we won by 6 or more in the league was Hamilton at home in the 2020/21 season, an 8-0 win coming on November 8th 2020. Nearly a full 4 years ago.

I actually thought, until the first goal, it wasn't a particularly dazzling performance from Rangers. I attributed this largely to Tom Lawrence, who I felt slowed things down and took up strange positions. So imagine my surprise when he took a pass on the spin in superb fashion, slipped in Dessers who took a touch, shimmied slightly to the left and blasted the ball past the County keeper into the bottom right corner.

It was the finish of a man bang in-form and I really liked the way he knew exactly what he was doing before he even got the ball given how much we criticise him for pondering in the final third.

After getting the first goal it felt like the game had really shifted in Rangers favour. It should be noted that Butland actually made a smart save to deny Ronan Hale from distance when the scores were level, if that had gone in the pattern of the game might have been entirely different.

I doubt it though, the Staggies were truly woeful. I commented that they had certainly lost some quality over the summer and that had been reflected in their opening results in the league. But this looks like a team who might be in real trouble this season.

You can only beat what's put in front of you though, and Rangers did that in style. Having got the first we continued to the pile the pressure on, we lost Balogun to injury just before half time (let's hope Propper is 200% fit as Clement suggested) which necessitated the introduction of Diomande and a slight shuffle of the pack.

There was still time for a second goal before the half time whistle as Tav put a decent looking cross into the near post, Matondo was sharper than the defenders and met the cross with.. some part of his body? His knee? His chest? I'm still not sure, but it flew in the top corner and we were 2 to the good at the break.

Credit to Matondo for his desire to get across his man. I can't recall seeing him score a goal like that for Rangers really, so I think we can credit the coaching staff for working on that kind of movement with him.

I think given the way this Rangers team has played in recent months, many would have expected us to take the foot off the gas in the second half. Maybe look like conceding before adding a third, and then actually conceding. But clearly the message from the manager during his team talk was that this team were there for the taking.

And take them we did, for the third Rabbi took a pass from Barron well on the edge. Then he turned and attacked the area with a bit of a controlled dribble (I know, I can't believe it either!) before crossing into the 6 yard box for Dessers to tap home his second goal of the day.

Rabbi was involved again in the next 2 goals. Receiving the ball after great hold-up play for Dessers to play in Lawrence who finished well to the keepers left. Before notching a brace for himself after meeting a good cross from Cerny to finish first time with a Staggies defender failing to clear the effort on the line.

There was time for Danilo to add a sixth at the death, reacting well to a ricochet in the box to poke home and seal a really good win for Rangers.

I think in terms of set up we saw similar ideas to last week, I did notice Tav spent most of the first half inverting into midfield and swapping positions with Sterling. We've seen this in a few games this season and I wonder if that's how Clement sees Tav's future in the team, less flying down the outside, more coming inside to help move the ball.

It was undoubtedly Matondo's best performance for Rangers, he's scored great goals for Rangers before. But this is the first time he's looked dangerous for the entire time he was on the park, and there was a real purpose about him whenever he picked up in the ball in the final third. For me, if we want Rabbi to be useful for us, he needs to be exclusively involved in the last third of the pitch like yesterday. There's no point asking him to come deep, assist in the build up and progress the ball up the pitch. He's a guy who we should only see in the final third, I think the set up made that happen yesterday. He may still leave this week, but if he stays I'd be happy to see him deployed like that going forward.

I hope that this sort of set up and performance becomes the norm. I've been critical of Clement's management so far this season, so I think he deserves credit for setting the team up well to take Ross County apart yesterday.

But it's the big one next week, an entirely different challenge for this team as we go to Celtic park for the first time this season. From Clement's post-match comments there should be some movement in the transfer market, but I don't think we will see anyone thrown in the deep end.

Even though he was good yesterday, I wouldn't keep Lawrence in the team, he's had many chances to perform against Celtic and he hasn't taken them. It remains to be seen whether Big Phil sees it the same way.

But I'm not going to spend any more of my weekend worrying about next week, I'm going to enjoy my Sunday. I hope everyone else does too.