Fan reaction raises Rangers issue Giovanni van Bronckhorst is making worse
Giovanni van Bronckhorst is creating a major issue for his Rangers team by relying on the same players for nearly every game.
The Dutchman didn’t make a single substitution, from an available five, in the laboured 1-0 win over St Johnstone, and only made one in the 2-2 draw with Motherwell a week earlier.
The manager also resisted refreshing his line-up to avoid a come down from the major European nights against Borussia Dortmund, bringing in only Fashion Sakala and Glen Kamara after the second leg, and just Filip Helander following the first.
Even one of those appeared to be enforced by the latest absence of Ryan Jack in midfield, and both league matches finished as sluggish draws.
The Athletic’s Jordan Campbell reports of the visit to Saints: “Lone shouts of ‘get him off!’ and ‘make a change, Gio!’ soon became a chorus of demands each time counterpart Callum Davidson rolled the dice by making a substitute.”
Combined issues
In mitigation Helander was at fault for the Dundee United goal as he struggled on his first league game back from injury.
But Connor Goldson and Allan McGregor stood out in an overall bad performance by the first team regulars in defence for the Motherwell result that saw a two-goal lead surrendered.
Clearly the January transfer window was not the qualified success that it appeared at first.
Headline signing Aaron Ramsey has been a non-factor thanks to the injury issues that plagued his Juventus career.
It was arguably a risk worth taking in his case due to his quality and relative low cost, but there tends to be a reason if such a surprise move is available.
The acquisitions of James Sands, Mateusz Zukowski, and to a certain extent Amad Diallo, are appearing increasingly unnecessary if the manager doesn’t see fit to feature them.
The Ivorian teenager from Manchester United scored early on his debut but has only been given fleeting opportunities since, similar to Sakala who has provided goals when he has featured.
The excitement that greeted Alex Lowry’s emergence in January has vanished along with the player.
The fact that van Bronckhorst trusts his squad so little is concerning if it means that they are not showing anything in training.
But if he is going to be so sparing with contributors like Sakala and Diallo, while largely ignoring others all together, they are not going to play themselves into any form.
An over-reliance on established characters is starting to appear draining on them, increases the risk that the likes of Jack will get re-injured, and creates an unhappy and wasted periphery.
And the failure to bring in John Souttar in January, while succeeding with moves for a number of spare parts, is looking increasingly telling.
In other Rangers news, Martin Keown has made a bold call of Rangers and Celtic amid their Australian plans.