Startling Rangers stat emerges under Giovanni van Bronckhorst
Rangers are starting games much faster under Giovanni van Bronckhorst, a statistic from Andrew Dickson reveals.
The Bears beat Livingston 3-1 in the Dutchman’s Scottish Premiership managerial debut on Sunday and were two goals up inside 16 minutes.
It followed a 2-0 win over Sparta Prague in the Europa League on Thursday, in which the scoring was also opened early – Alfredo Morelos notching after 15 minutes.
Writing on Twitter, Sky Sports journalist Dickson highlighted how these early goals are a big change from the last months of Steven Gerrard’s tenure.
“One notable stat for me from van Bronckhorst’s first two games,” he said.
“Three goals scored in the opening 16 minutes of those matches. Rangers’ last three goals in the opening 16 minutes of games came over their previous 18 fixtures.
“Stronger starts will do a lot to build confidence.”
Fast starts
Two games is obviously a very small sample size, but it is definitely something to keep an eye on over the next few weeks.
As van Bronckhorst sat in the Hampden Park stands for Rangers’ Scottish League Cup semi-final defeat to Hibernian, there was a fear that he had a bigger job on his hands than anticipated.
However, he is making the perfect start – quite literally – and ensuring that the Bears do not take their foot off the gas in the Scottish Premiership title race.
The team are asserting their dominance on games right from the off, which was not the case under Gerrard; Rangers conceded the first goal in the Englishman’s last five matches in charge.
But against Livingston on Sunday for example, after Scott Arfield and Joe Aribo had put them 2-0 up with just over a quarter of an hour gone, there was never any doubt that they would go on and secure the three points.
In other Rangers news, a report has detailed the key tactical switch van Bronckhorst has made that makes the Bears more dangerous in attack.