Rangers Find Backbone in Victory Against Aberdeen
Rangers finally found something that has been missing all season: a bit of backbone.
Up to Sunday, it has been a wretched start. Recruitment has dragged. The European campaign – if you can even dress it up as that – was a humiliation. Derek McInnes has spent weeks shuffling systems, line-ups and substitutions like a manager searching for a light switch in the dark.
Against Aberdeen, at last, there was a shape that made sense.
A team that looked like a team
This was the version of Rangers many expected McInnes to put on the pitch from day one. They were organised. They were disciplined. They were, crucially, hard to beat.
It was not a performance to put on a highlights reel, but it was one that got them over the line. After the chaos of recent weeks, that matters. Now the question is whether this becomes a foundation or proves to be a one-off.
Going forward, only two players truly caught the eye. Kim Min-Su demanded the ball, played like he wanted to be the fulcrum of the side and carried himself as if the attacking responsibility belonged to him. Djeidi Gassama brought energy and direct running, a rare spark in a team still trying to remember what fluid attacking football looks like.
They were the exceptions in a front line that remains a work in progress.
No controversy in the key calls
Referee Matthew MacDermid found himself at the centre of the usual noise once Kevin Nisbet’s goal was chalked off. The online outrage machine whirred into life almost on cue.
Strip away the hysteria and the decision was straightforward. Two offences in the same passage of play: a shove on Dujon Sterling and an offside. Either one is enough; together they make the call unarguable. The goal had to be ruled out, and it was.
Rangers, for once this season, were not the architects of their own drama.
Window ticking, work piling up
This win, grounded in comfort and solidity, has to be the start of something. Falkirk on Wednesday now looms as a test of whether McInnes’ side can back up a competent display with another, or whether they slip back into the uncertainty that has defined the early weeks.
Off the pitch, the to-do list is daunting. The club has been heavily linked with a striker. They still need another right winger. Two midfielders are on the wish list. That is not tinkering around the edges; that is surgery.
There is plenty to fix before this squad gets anywhere near the standard Rangers demand. The Aberdeen win offers a platform. The transfer window and the trip to Falkirk will show whether they know how to build on it.
