Ibrox View: Three things we learnt from Rangers win v St. Mirren
Rangers continued their winning start to the Scottish Premiership season with a comfortable 3-0 win over St. Mirren on Sunday afternoon.
An own goal and a welcome brace from Alfredo Morelos were enough to see Steven Gerrard’s men over the line, and provided the perfect tonic to Thursday night’s 1-0 defeat against Bayer Leverkusen.
There was also a brief debut for new boy Cedric Itten, who came on from the bench in the 75th minute, although it was hard to get too much of a measure of the Switzerland international in such a limited outing.
In the main, however, this was a pretty solid display from the Gers, who had 29 attempts to their visitors’ four, as per Whoscored.
Steven Gerrard will no doubt have been delighted with such a straightforward three points, and here are three things we learnt from Sunday afternoon’s win.
1. Morelos hits back with a bang
We’ll hold our hands up, after Thursday’s performance against Bayer Leverkusen, we would have been quite happy to see Alfredo Morelos dropped for this one.
The Colombian looked entirely disinterested against the German club, failing to register a single shot, a single successful dribble, and making just eight successful passes in 80 minutes, as per Wyscout.
We thought that we’d seen the last of the Morelos of old in a Rangers shirt, if the truth be told, but how glad we are that he made us look so foolish.
This was a much improved performance from El Bufalo, who looked a lot more engaged, and capped his performance with a couple of typically predatory goals.
A thumping header and a casual tap-in were enough to hand him the brace, and if these are some of the final performances that we see from at Ibrox, all we can say is that we would much rather he went out on a high than in a slump.
2. Balogun looks like the real deal
We might only be two games into the new Premiership season, but Leon Balogun is beginning to look like the coup of the summer.
The towering defender was recalled to the starting lineup after being ineligible for the Gers’ midweek European clash, and that in itself spoke volumes about how the manager views him.
Filip Helander had a marvellous game against Leverkusen, so much so that Ibrox News picked him out for individual praise, but Balogun came back into the side alongside Connor Goldson and looked as solid and dependable as he did against the Dons last weekend.
The Athletic journalist Jordan Campbell called him “exceptional” in a tweet during the game, and we couldn’t agree more.
3. Gerrard shouldn’t be afraid of 4-4-2
Look, we get it.
Managers have their preferred systems, they train their squads all week to fit said system, and winning a match 3-0 would certainly suggest that Gerrard was justified in starting with a midfield three against St. Mirren.
But when an opponent is offering as little going forward as the Saints were at Ibrox, why not push them a little harder and go with a two up top?
Now that we have Kemar Roofe and Cedric Itten on the books, plus Jermain Defoe to come back and Morelos – for now, at least – there is enough quality and depth to switch things up.
Ultimately, it didn’t matter today, but there might be times when we’re struggling to break teams down, and having a plan B would be a smart idea.
In other Rangers news, Darren Fletcher has backed this Gers talent for big season in 20/21 after impressive showing v Aberdeen.