Rangers’ defeat to Livingston means the club have now failed one of the biggest tests of the season.
Steven Gerrard’s side fell 1-0 at the Toni Macaroni Arena thanks to Dolly Menga’s first-half strike. It was being billed as a game Rangers should’ve won, but a flat performance saw the Gers lose out disappointingly.
Livi were always going to play to their strengths on their astroturf pitch. They set up to be compact and ensure that Rangers couldn’t cut through them, and that’s pretty much the story of the game.
One of the other big aspects of the contest was how Joe Worrall and Connor Goldson dealt with Menga. He was Livingston’s only out-ball, and if Rangers were able to shut him off then it would’ve been simpler.
Unfortunately for Rangers, both were absolutely bullied by the Livingston forward. He held the ball up supremely well, and every time he got on the ball he brought Livi up the pitch.
Morelos/Lafferty anonymous
Menawhile, Alfredo Morelos and Kyle Lafferty did next to nothing up top for Rangers. They were barely in the game and you could tell early on what kind of match Morelos was going to have.
Not every week will we see Rangers play scintillating football with four and five goals. There will be matches where they need to battle in order to see games out. Here, they were totally bullied and showed a disappointing soft side to their game.
You wonder whether Gerrard may have been better suited with Andy Halliday in there instead of Ovie Ejaria in particular. Ejaria saw a lot of the ball, but struggled to make anything happen in the centre. Gerrard could’ve sacrificed the flair that Ejaria often brings for the more steely Halliday.
It’s difficult to know whether the manager got this wrong in terms of squad selection, or whether the players just didn’t turn up for the battle. In this writer’s opinion, it looked like a mixture of both.
There was a notable increase in intensity when Ryan Kent was substituted on. Even that waned after 15 minutes or so though.
Overall, this was a thoroughly wanting display from Rangers. Whenever supporters have the opportunity to get slightly carried away, Rangers find a way to bring them back to earth.
