Two weeks have passed since it was only three weeks since Danny Röhl got the Rangers gig. International breaks tend to go slower - or quicker depending how badly your team might be doing - but a lot always changes.
The expectation is usually that two weeks on the training pitch will see lots of new ideas come to the fore and offer chances to recuperate and recover after a hectic spell of club football. With so many international players at Rangers it’s always a little more complicated than that. The first full training session of the “break” will usually be Thursday of the second week, which in this case was just two days before Röhl’s fourth league win in a row, a scrappy 2-1 victory against against Livingston. Add to that a bunch of players unhelpfully returning from international duty with injuries, and it becomes even more challenging than playing three games in a week with zero recovery time. A clear run doesn’t ever really exist in football and definitely not at Ibrox.
In my previous article, I mentioned that Rangers seemed to be on the way to relative improvement on the defensive side of things. A really sloppy goal conceded agains Livingston aside, things do still seem a little less fraught and panicked when opposition players cross the halfway line.
The early signs still suggest Rangers are becoming harder to play through and harder to drag out of shape. That risk of a long ball will always remain, until Rangers recruit defenders who are physically dominant one vs one and blessed with significant amounts of recovery pace. Röhl has started by fixing the leaks before worrying about what colour the kitchen tiles should be. It’s sensible and it’s necessary, if a little bit boring.
But now we reach the unavoidable question, how does this squad actually score enough goals to win a title?
What the Attack Needs to Look Like
As ludicrous as it sounds after a circa £35m summer transfer spend, Rangers badly need reinforcements. They need players who suit Rangers, Scotland and the demands of high-possession football. In short, they need players who fit.
It sounds fairly obvious, but how many players signed in the summer tick all the boxes in this fairly simple criteria below?
Played 3,000+ minutes last season
History of winning leagues/European experience.
2-3 years minimum of excellent performances at a similar sized club
Comfortable playing three games per week at high intensity
Regularly playing in teams who have 60%+ of the ball
Not many. Definitely not enough.
They can’t ALL fit this criteria of course but these are the players who you build your team around. The players who help the younger, inexperienced players to develop and eventually replace them in the squad building cycle. Remember those?
Rangers have a squad of squad players who look like they badly need some help.
Röhl’s early Rangers side isn’t slow or ponderous. The ball goes forward fairly quickly with purpose, but it also isn’t flowing with loads and loads of chances created. That’s maybe fine at this point given everything. Ask any coach and they will tell you that attacking patterns of play can take months to teach, especially when you inherit a squad that has basically flip flopped between total passivity and frantic improvisation for the last however many years.
The broad outline of what Rangers need is clear and to be honest is club and environment specific, not just for any one manager’s needs:
A front line able to press intelligently and quickly
Players in the half spaces who can receive under pressure
Direct runners who can mix it up instead of everything to feet
A player who can consistently finish chances - something Rangers haven’t had for a long long time
Rangers need players in attack who can draw defenders to them and free up others. Not players who stand in one place and wait for passes to come to them.
The defence has shown it can compete in some games but what it can’t do is carry the attack too. It’s a cliche, but a fast start for a team like Rangers is crucial. Get the early goal and most teams will sit back and be less aggressive. This reduces the strain on the defence and minimises the risk of sloppy goals being conceded. Win win.
The team do not create enough repeatable attacking opportunities and all attacks seem to happen in isolation, a cross into the box or some individual magic. None of it feels repeatable or consistent and it’s a big gap.
What Profiles Do Rangers Need?
For me, the team lacks three essential attacking profiles as a priority — and that’s where recruitment becomes unavoidable. There are not many attackers within the current squad who tick enough boxes to be considered first team regulars.
So, let’s break this into the three profiles I think Rangers need. Three missing pieces that would make the tactical set up Röhl wants function the way it’s meant to.
An All-Round Number 9
The striker who presses, links, runs, finishes. Not just one or two of these things - all of them all the time.
If the defensive article was about being realistic, this is the painful bit: Rangers simply do not have a striker who fits what any Rangers manager needs, not just Danny Röhl.
Under this system, the number nine is the focal point. They lead the press, are key in build up, and are the primary goal threat. It’s a lot, but it needs to be. Rangers need a front line that works tirelessly to close teams down, win turnovers, and transition quickly. The striker can’t be watching on, lurking in the box waiting for chances to come their way to finish. They need to be involved.
Rangers’ current centre-forwards, at their best, do some bits of this. Occasionally. Maybe. Yet still less than last year, inexplicably. But they don’t do all of it and they definitely don’t do it every three days.
The profile itself is simple to describe and extremely hard to find:
Presses quickly and intelligently
Can play with back to goal AND run in behind
Take a lot of shots per game
Decent movement in the box to take advantage of cutbacks
Doesn’t need perfect passes laid on a plate to score
Can play a 50 game season
This is the position that lets your supporting attackers actually play football. Link with the midfielders and full backs to become a platform, instead of trying to be everything to everyone.
We know Rangers can’t go out and sign the finished article here. You’re shopping below the elite tier and looking for someone who is close enough to break out on a bigger stage . That’s what recruitment at Rangers level is all about - finding those players before other clubs do.
It needs to be a number nine who knits the front of the pitch together, brings the tactics to life and is basically the foundation of everything else.
A Proper Centre Midfielder
The one who holds the system together.
If the striker is the face of the system, this role would probably be the spine.
Röhl’s early tactical ideas - three players behind the ball, compactness, getting forward quickly when possible - all rely on having a midfielder who can do three things at once:
Take the ball under pressure and constantly pass forward
Win second balls and defend large spaces
Dominate tempo of games when Rangers have 65% possession
Again as with the strikers, Rangers have players who can do one or two of those things. Very few can do all three in the same match, never mind the same sequence of play.
This profile is not a luxury player, it’s the platform that allows everything else to happen.
If Rangers keep shaping up with three behind the ball and a flexible midfield two, then this midfielder must be comfortable switching between playing as a number six and as a number eight. He must be able to drop in to help build up in a back three, get forward to support the attackers/wing backs when needed and control counter attacks to guard against cheap one vs ones from long balls.
Again, it’s a lot. But this is the level of player required to dominate a league.
Remember the debates around how Ryan Jack, Glen Kamara and Steven Davis probably didn’t offer enough in attack as a midfield three? I was as guilty of it as anyone and while it was true, it sounds ludicrous now given the complete mismatch of profiles we’ve seen in the middle since 2022.
Rangers need to sign the player who helps to knit our other profiles together. The biggest gap in midfield is a player who can control the tempo of games in good or bad periods of games yet still be physical and cover enough ground for when things go wrong. Sign one of them, and some of the other midfielders like Raskin, Diomande and Cameron will fit better beside them.
Rangers haven’t had a player like this since 2022 as mentioned above. This profile takes the recent defensive improvement and makes it something you can hang your hat on longer term.
The Creative Goalscorer
If the first two profiles are structural, this one is more about individuality or genius. This is the player you sign so that a tedious game becomes an easy win through a moment of magic.
Rangers do not have a wide forward who can:
Guarantee double figures in league goals and assist
Press like a demon out of possession
Consistently beat their man one vs one
Specialise in getting to the byline and hitting cutbacks
Be the difference maker against low blocks
The signs from Mikey Moore are that he might grow into it, but he’s young and it’s early and he’s injured for who knows how long. Gassama is a goalscoring threat but lacks the experience and consistency at this stage to be relied on three times a week. Oliver Antman doesn’t look like the right type of player to break down packed defences.
Take the managers 3-4-3 shape as an example, the two wide attackers need to be able to do all of the above and more. This player needs stamina, quality, and more than a bit of gallusness.
The right signing here gives you creativity and and goals that aren’t really dependent on a system or a pattern of pay. More about off the cuff individual brilliance and sheer talent.
How These Profiles Fit Röhl’s Rangers
To understand where these players might fit in, lets picture Röhl’s early structural shape.
In possession, we have mostly seen a back three with two man midfield. one of the two plays as a deeper central midfielder who can drop into the back line if playing a back four. So the new centre mid would be the number eight or the ten in the line up image above.
Wingbacks are usually high and wide, but sometimes they have played asymmetrical with one bombing on and the other staying deeper. Rangers have experimented with two strikers but usually still one as the focal point and two attackers dropping into the half spaces. The creative goalscorer would play in one of those positions (7 or 11 in the image above)
A striker who can hold up or run in behind. A new number 9 in the image above.
Out of possession, Rangers generally favour a mid block defensive line with triggers to jump when the opposition play the ball back. Rangers try to be compact in the middle and force teams wide. The full-backs or wingbacks depending on the formation are positioned to press and regain the ball
Centre-backs who are able to defend space are still needed but certain players can be capable of that with proper coaching and support.
The new striker would allow the two other attackers to play facing forward and be more aggressive. This would add variance to the attack instead of the wingbacks being the only runners. More pace in attack allows pressing to become more efficient and helps counter attacks actually lead to shots.
Without this number nine leading from the front, everything behind the ball becomes harder.
The centre midfielder profile guarantees that Rangers don’t lose control when they attack with 5 or 6 players (needed to break down low blocks). They also help ensure that long balls behind the defence aren’t fatal every time. Rangers build-up can look a lot smoother and less passive and second balls become more about possession than panic.
This is the profile that protects the defence and gives the base of the attack.
The creative goalscorer profile provides proven quality in the final third with goals and assists. A consistent one vs one threat and a bit of out of the box thinking when the usual patterns of play aren’t successful. They also help provide support to the striker and onrushing midfielders during counter attacks.
This is the player who turns dominance into results.
Every transfer window brings fresh opportunities. It’s arguable that Rangers haven’t had a net positive transfer window since summer 2020 which is absolutely inexcusable. The new owners haven’t been shy about making tough decisions over the last few weeks and owning some costly mistakes.
Yes a lot of money was spent in the summer, but ultimately it hasn’t been enough or it’s been invested into ill-equipped players. Lets hope those mistakes are also rectified by the time we reach the 1t February.
Röhl has had a good league start, but we are still at the mercy of the roll of the dice at times in games. Big saves, missed opportunities, poor attacking. Those four league games could look very different with just one or two small decisions going the other way.
It’s time to stop living in the margins and bring in the players that allow us to play the type of football Rangers need and should be aiming for.
Rangers need goals and lots of them.