St Johnstone 0-1 Rangers: Holt me close

Morning everyone, routine away win for Rangers yesterday. Definitely a case of the same problems remaining, I'd say there were some marginal improvements? But I feel like this is the change in personnel in Hagi and Igamane making an impact, rather than the players suddenly understanding the system. These improvements really were minor as it was yet another case of a narrow win where we didn't take advantage of terrible opposition.

I missed the game which meant I had the joys of watching it back, which is very hard to find the motivation to do let me tell you. All I'd heard was that we were poor yet again, I knew it wasn't going to be a 5 goal thriller, so trying to work myself up into watching the game is difficult. But the benefit of watching it back is that it gives me a perspective not influenced by the thoughts I'd have if I was watching it live.

While we did have more shots than usual (17), I don't think they were in great positions, but it certainly looked better to be forcing the keeper into a few saves (10). The cross numbers were down which you could tell from watching the game, it always feels like we start crossing once we've run out of ideas. It was nice to see us hold the territory high up the pitch in an away game, that's something that's been totally bereft from most of our performances in the league.

From watching the game it's clear that Hagi as the number 10 makes a big difference. I wrote about the number 10 role on the Rangers journal but I think it's good to use a simple example to talk about how Hagi plays for Rangers compared to others.

Imagine a pitch in your mind. If I was to draw how someone like Tom Lawrence plays for rangers I'd draw several straight lines up and down the pitch, he likes to go beyond, and if he comes deep he wants to knock the ball on and move up the park. That's not necessarily a criticism of Lawrence, but he's very functional as a 10, he is thinking about how he can get the ball into the goal via the shortest route possible (relatively speaking).

If I was drawing Diomande and how he plays, I'd probably dot a few circles around the pitch. He likes to drop into the pockets, especially out-wide, and receive the ball to feet, looking to turn and bring others into play or find room for a shot himself. Diomande sees himself as a fixed point on the pitch for the other attackers to combine with, I think this is why he struggles as our number 10 in league games. In Europe he ends up as less of a fixed point because the space is there for him to move up the pitch following any combination play, in the league he hits the edge of the opponents box and stops.

For Hagi, I would draw something a bit more chaotic, lines pointing out-wide, inside at an angle, maybe a few curved lines in wide areas. I think this is a great approach for any 10 to have but in certain games it can be a weakness. In league games, away games especially, Rangers need a 10 with that approach. Hagi wants to get in any pockets of space, pick up the ball and drive inside or simply lay it off for others. He's a little bit chaotic, a little bit unpredictable and I think his athleticism and energy makes us look far more lively against a deep block. Whereas Lawrence and Diomande look slow and ponderous against teams domestically in comparison.

So given all that analysis it's no surprise that in his limited minutes he's had a really important impact. In the home league game against St Johnstone it was his instinctive and direct pass to Cerny that brought about the second goal. On Sunday it was his early lobbed ball to the back post that forced Jason Holt, under pressure from Tavernier, to get his 16th Rangers goal and give us all 3 points.

Long term we need to look at what Bajrami can do at the number 10 position, we spent serious money on him after all. But given our limited options in many areas on the pitch, we need to keep Hagi in that role with the same kind of license he had at the weekend.

I'm not going to bother dressing Sunday up as some kind of step in the right direction. I don't believe there was enough of an improvement in our approach to justify much in the way of optimism. Very happy to be proven wrong by some kind of storming performance in the next league game.

Have a good week folks.