After a magnificent ten match run, featuring nine wins in ten and seven wins in a row, Early season Rangers returns and came unstuck at the hands of Dundee. It was the first time in quite a period that our manager had quite clearly made the same kind of errors that he did at the start of the season.

Rangers fans understandably have been overjoyed, ourselves included, with the improvement in the team over the past two months. The run of those seven wins in a row was an extremely strong fillip to McInnes’s credentials as Rangers manager. But unfortunately, his bad decision making returned at Dens Park, when his diabolical call to drop Kevin Kelsy and play Ryan Naderi alone up front clearly did not work. This was our big issue at Ibrox Noise prematch when we saw the team.

Derek McInnes Mistakes

It is not so much that he got it wrong to start with. Every manager will make mistakes. Even the great Walter Smith was prone to errors now and again. We are all human and we will never criticise a manager simply for making a mistake. But what we will criticise him for is not recognising that mistake when it was patently clear after 15 minutes that the system was nowhere near working. And early season Rangers returns as a result.

Rangers started out very flat. There was no gumption, no desire and the system just had no penetration or overlapping wing play. There was nothing going through the middle and not a single player, bar Badredine Bouanani, actually had anything approaching a decent night. He was the one exception out on the right who tried to make things happen, but he lacked support and nobody was making the decent runs in the middle.

In short, the system just did not function as early season Rangers returns. And the problem, of course, is that McInnes did not change it. He did not change it quickly or adapt to the situation around him. This is something he will have to learn as a Rangers manager. There is huge pressure if you change what is not broken in the first place, but even more tellingly if you do not fix what is breaking in front of you.

No Tactical Adaptation

McInnes showed no adaptation. Clearly, he was hoping to see how the match went. He stood by the touchline, watching on and hoping that the system would click into gear and start to function soon.

Of course, we remember what happened when Philippe Clement took off Todd Cantwell early back in the day and made an example of the former Norwich City player. There was such a huge furore when Clement had the boldness to take Cantwell off so soon in.

We were not necessarily asking for a change in personnel that would have possibly embarrassed a player. What we wanted was a change in system. The 4-2-3-1 formation was not right for this match.

We did suggest, why fix what is not broken? But at the same time, when it was abundantly clear after 15 minutes that the formation and the system were not gelling, McInnes should have changed it. It is on his pay cheque to decide what he changes it to, but Dundee and Steven Pressley had the absolute measure of Rangers. Pressley had McInnes’s number quite easily at Dens Park and McInnes had no real answer.

Kevin Kelsy’s Absence

Was it a mistake to drop Kevin Kelsy? Well, it certainly did not help. We at Ibrox Noise have not been hugely won over by the Venezuelan, but we have to recognise three goals and assists in five matches and the fact that he clearly gets the team up the pitch in a way Ryan Naderi cannot.

Naderi deeply struggled. That was abundantly obvious from the word go. This was not the right selection or system for the match in question.

It is a big blot on Derek McInnes’s Rangers copybook. We cannot expect him to win every single match, but we can expect him to adapt a system when it is not working.

Rangers Title Implications

If you get beaten by two stellar goals, there is not a lot you can do about that. Well worked goals are just well worked goals and that is that at the end of the day. But both goals Rangers conceded were defensive lapses as a result of a system that was not favouring the players in it.

It is the first time that we have seen that early Rangers from this season. The first time in a while that it has reared its ugly head and returned again.

McInnes will have to reduce these Derek McInnes mistakes if he is to have any chance of winning the league. But unfortunately, unless Celtic drop points, and even if they do, it is sadly advantage Parkhead now.

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