Pete Hanson

Sun 6 August 2023 12:10, UK

Former Rangers winger Neil McCann says Michael Beale’s side must improve in attack after a limp opening-day defeat to Kilmarnock in the Scottish Premiership.

The Gers went down 1-0 with Brad Lyons scoring the only goal of the game at Rugby Park in the 65th minute on Saturday (5 August).

Beale named five of his nine new summer signings in the starting XI, including a new front three of Sam Lammers, Abdallah Sima and Cyriel Dessers, while another forward was brought off the bench in the form of Danilo.

McCann, speaking as a pundit on Sportscene (5 August, 46:14), says the front line will have to find a way to gel quickly.

“You look at it, Rangers didn’t make it easy for themselves, they’ve got a lot of work to do, particularly in the forward areas of the pitch, they’ve signed a lot of players, they didn’t click today,” he said.

“I think it’s a lack of understanding and I just think it’s a lack of cohesion. It’ll get better, it’ll have to Charlie (Mulgrew, fellow pundit).”

Must do better

After making so many signings during the summer, Beale and the Rangers supporters will have been desperate to see a new-look side hit the ground running at Rugby Park on Saturday.

But in truth it was a limp, flat and lifeless showing across the board and as much as Kilmarnock deserve a huge amount of credit for a disciplined and dogged display, Rangers just did not do enough.

None of the front three particularly impressed, while it was a bit of a surprise to see Todd Cantwell only named among the substitutes bench – they missed his directness and guile.

It is still, of course, extremely early doors and you imagine the more the forwards play together and learn to understand one another the better they will be.

But they have to find ways to win while they figure each other out, otherwise they may find any gap that opens up with Celtic quickly becomes insurmountable.

In other Rangers news, a Sky Sports pundit had a warning to Todd Cantwell after his omission versus Kilmarnock.