This was not a Rangers full of stand-out performances – a display of peaks and troughs during Wednesday’s 4-2 win at Kilmarnock – but Barry Ferguson still felt there was one ‘exceptional’ showing amongst the visiting ranks.
A common theme during the final few months of Philippe Clement’s reign was players featuring out of position, albeit more in necessity rather than desire. Filling gaps, square pegs in round holes and all that.
With John Souttar picking up an injury to rule himself out against Kilmarnock and Clinton Nsiala taken off for his own protection just half an hour in, Rangers’ backline at the end of Barry Ferguson’s interim debut also had a ramshackle, makeshift sort of feel about it.
Ridvan Yilmaz on the right, and James Tavernier partnering the struggling Robin Propper in the centre.
It is no coincidence, meanwhile, that a Rangers defence which had been breached twice in the opening 14 minutes suddenly looked a whole lot more solid once the veteran captain shifted across.
He is far from a natural central defender. But, with James Tavernier the only Rangers player to earn a 9/10 in our post-match ratings, Clement might have been onto something when he suggested that the rampaging right-back could yet extend a fine career by turning a temporary positional change into something more permanent.
Barry Ferguson lauds James Tavernier and explains Clinton Nsiala exit in Rangers win
“I thought he was exceptional when he went into centre-back,” Ferguson said of Tavernier when asked by the Sky Sports pundits at full-time.
Tavernier backed Clinton Nsiala to recover from his Kilmarnock horror show, just days after he was arguably at fault for both of St Mirren’s goals in that stunning 2-0 defeat at Ibrox.
Ferguson agrees, adding that this was a decision he needed to make as much for Nsiala’s benefit as for Rangers as a whole.
“At times, during the game when things aren’t going well, you have to make tough decisions,” the former skipper explains. “Clinton is young. He will recover from it. But I just felt we had to make the change and obviously it worked out pretty well.
“Then, we started to control the game, probably relaxed a wee bit. I thought we were a bit tense [at the start]. Listen, their confidence has been quite low so you have to be careful with that.
“I told them; ‘Look, you’re playing for a brilliant club. There are expectations and demands on you and you have to handle that’.
“I thought they handled it the last ten, fifteen minutes of the first half and the second 45. I thought they were excellent [after the break].”
Ferguson delighted to secure comeback win over Derek McInnes’ Kilmarnock
Vaclav Cerny halved the benefit on the half-hour mark.
And, flying out of the blocks after the interval, a quickfire brace from Cyriel Dessers and a late clincher from the under-fire Nedim Bajrami secured Ferguson a dream start to life in a job he never expected to inherit.
“Listen, yeah I enjoyed it of course. Its just been a bit surreal,” Ferguson admits. “I didn’t expect to come back into management, to be brutally honest. I was enjoying my role as an ambassador! But when I got offered the opportunity, I thought I would be crazy to turn it down.”
Whether Ferguson remains in the post beyond the season remains to be seen.
Derek McInnes is one of those who have been mentioned in conjunction the job on a permanent basis. Ferguson rates the Rangers-liked Kilmarnock boss very highly, and he was delighted to come out of a meeting with the two-time SFWA Manager of the Year with all three points.
“A brilliant result against a really good Kilmarnock,” the 43-year-old finishes. “A really good team and a really good manager who I’ve got a lot of respect for.
“We knew they way they would go about it. They are physical, well-drilled but they’ve got really good football players. People tend to just say Kilmarnock are big and strong but they can play as well.
“I thought, after the first 30 minutes, we handled that. Going forward, it was good but there was a lot of things we need to improve.”
