Rangers Find Calm Amidst Season Chaos
Rangers finally found something that has been missing all season: a little calm in the chaos.
The campaign so far has been grim. Recruitment has dragged, the European adventure barely got off the runway and crashed in embarrassment, and Derek McInnes has spent the opening weeks shuffling line-ups, systems and substitutions like a manager desperate for one combination to click. It has looked disjointed, confused, and a long way short of what Rangers demand.
Against Aberdeen on Sunday, there was at last a glimpse of order.
This was the version of McInnes’ Rangers many expected from the first whistle of the season – disciplined, compact, and grown-up. It was not spectacular. It did not need to be. They were solid, they got over the line, and for a club in their current state that matters more than any flourish. The key question now is whether this becomes a foundation or simply a rare good day in a poor start.
In attack, only two players truly rose above the grey.
Kim Min-Su played as if he wanted the whole game to run through him, demanding the ball and trying to dictate where and how Rangers moved. There was intent in everything he did, a sense that he wanted responsibility rather than hiding from it. Wide of him, Djeidi Gassama brought the spark. He was bright, direct, and looked like he could unnerve defenders whenever he squared them up. In a forward line that has lacked conviction, they were the two who looked like they belonged at the heart of any rebuild.
The talking points, as so often in Scottish football, did not end with the final whistle. Referee Matthew MacDermid found himself in the crosshairs online, with the usual noise swirling around Kevin Nisbet’s disallowed goal. Strip away the outrage and the picture is clear. There were two issues in the move: a shove on Dujon Sterling and an offside. Either one was enough to halt the celebrations; together they made the decision straightforward. MacDermid got the big calls right.
That matters for Rangers too. When a team is fragile, the last thing they need is another afternoon derailed by controversy. Instead, they leave with a win built on comfort and control, something they have sorely lacked.
Now comes the hard part: backing it up.
A trip to Falkirk on Wednesday offers the chance to prove this was the start of a climb rather than a one-off. The performance against Aberdeen has to be a template, not an exception. And while McInnes works on the training ground, the recruitment team has its own battle to fight.
The squad is short. Everyone can see it. Rangers have been heavily linked with a striker and that deal needs to be more than just talk. They still require another right winger, and two midfielders are on the wish list as well. That is not tinkering; that is core surgery.
There is plenty to do and not much time to do it. If Rangers want Sunday to be remembered as the day their season finally turned, the work off the pitch now has to match the resolve they finally showed on it.
