Rangers looked close to something resembling a football team against Union Berlin, even if the defensive lapses continue to plague Philippe Clement’s side.
From back to front, there wasn’t a poor performer in the squad in terms of possession, it was just in defending wide areas where there were problems.
Jefte and James Tavernier struggled defending space and one-v-one respectively and this was how all four goals were conceded leaving the manager with a problem to solve .
Philippe Clement reflects on Rangers defence woes
The Gers boss will be encouraged by what his team did with the ball even with players like Danilo, Oscar Cortés and Vaclav Cerny still needing to get up to speed and full match fitness.
Speaking after the game, Clement gave a surprising answer about what he saw:
“Am I concerned about losing so many goals? No, of course I want fewer goals against but for example, against Man United we had three shots on goal and they made two goals.
“It is not like Jack Butland played a bad game. So, you need to look a little through the stats also because against Man United we played a good defensive game and today in a lot of moments we played a good defensive game.
“But we made a few mistakes that in the future will not happen anymore because we learn out of that. That is the story with new players and a new squad, you need to build out of something so mistakes come along the way and you need to learn and work on it. That is in every team in the world.”
Clement also spoke about the bizarre penalty incident and the offside goal, some of the officiating was skirting with the nonsensical at times.
A corner was awarded that no players claimed for after a loose cross went high and wide being another example.
Defence problems could be an easy fix
The defensive problems that have blighted pre-season are worrying because they are individual errors.
The manager can’t actually do much about them which is why he has considered how many shots his side have conceded.
Jefte can be coached into being positioned better when Rangers don’t have the ball but he also has to want to defend and learn that there is nothing wrong with taking charge of a situation and just clearing the ball.
As for Tavernier, the issue is more complicated.
Against Union Berlin and Birmingham City, Rangers lost goals because the captain didn’t deal with his man.
He got his positioning wrong and only created issues for other players inside him.
At nearly 33-years old, is he just a bit rusty or has the decline fully set in?
The easiest fix, is to change personnel.
Dujon Sterling dealt with Jadon Sancho with ease and but for a small muscle complaint would have played against Union.
Ridvan Yilmaz is considerably smaller physically but equally as aggressive in one-v-one scenarios.
On recent evidence, who starts at full-back at Tynecastle is an easy decision.
Pre-season is about getting minutes into the legs, but it is also about finding out who is in form and who can be trusted.
