Jeff Stelling: Van Bronckhorst transition at Rangers has been ‘seamless’
Jeff Stelling is impressed by the job Giovanni van Bronckhorst has done at Rangers since taking charge at Ibrox last month.
After Steven Gerrard quit the Gers for Aston Villa, van Bronckhorst was brought in to fill his boots and if anything, there’s been a major improvement under the Dutchman.
While Gerrard brought us title number 55 last season, there were signs we were struggling under his leadership this term but van Bronckhorst has now managed to iron out those creases.
Speaking ahead of Rangers’ 1-0 win over Dundee United at Ibrox on Saturday, Stelling said on Sky Sports News: “The transition from Steven Gerrard to Giovanni van Bronckhorst has been absolutely seamless, hasn’t it?”
“They’ve won their last seven at home, they’re unbeaten at home and their only loss this season was at Dundee United.
“You sense there will be a thirst for revenge today.”
Gio’s on fire
Van Bronckhorst managed his eighth Rangers game on Saturday and in those eight matches, he’s led his side to seven wins and one draw.
That one draw came away against Lyon in the Europa League, so even the time he didn’t win it was mightily impressive to get a point.
Rangers are now six for six in the league with Gio at the helm and hopefully the winning run continues as long as possible.
The performances under Gerrard were a bit worrying and we were dropping points against teams we shouldn’t have done and it also seemed as though we could drop out of the Europa League.
Van Bronckhorst has stopped that from happening and while the odd poor performance still slips in – a bit like against Dundee United on Saturday – we’re still more confident of winning because the defence has been sorted out massively.
In other Rangers news, an ex-FIFA official says the SFA should write to Nicola Sturgeon about what an SNP politician said this week.