Barry Ferguson must have been wondering what he had got himself in for when he watched Rangers going two goals behind against Kilmarnock.
The new Rangers manager didn’t please fans by picking the same starting XI, and it looked like the same shambolic display was about to unfold.
However, Ferguson had other ideas, and made the sort of tactical change that just hasn’t been seen from Rangers in the last couple of seasons.
The tactical change Barry Ferguson made to save Rangers
For the first half hour, it was 2-0 going on 4 or 5, until he hooked Clinton Nsiala.
To clarify, it wasn’t all Nsiala’s fault, in fact, a lot of it wasn’t with his more experienced partner Robin Propper having a shocker, a 2/10 player rating was generous.
It wasn’t just moving James Tavernier into centre-half that made the difference, although the skipper’s performance and that of Ridvan Yilmaz helped shore up the defence and got the team playing with the ball on the deck.
Ferguson changed shape, and had Rangers in an almost Steven Gerrard-like 4-3-3 but with a fluid forward line.
Ianis Hagi and Mohamed Diomande operated as number eights, with the latter providing two assists and Hamza Igamane and Vaclav Cerny were given a free reign in the front three, switching flanks and dropping into midfield to provide overloads.
A simple move that made a difference.
Who did the change in shape benefit?
There was a number of players who had more of an influence, in particular, the more attack minded players.
Rather than having one number eight going box to box, playing two meant that there was an extra body in midfield to add balance which makes it easier to recover the ball too.
Once Rangers had this extra body, they had more control and restricted Kilmarnock to just one long range effort.
The change also allowed Igamane and Cerny to float between the lines both horizontally and vertically, rather than being stuck on the touchline being easy to defend against.
He wasn’t on for long, but even Nedim Bajrami looked sharper with more freedom to move around the final third.
It’s early days, but there is a lot to be positive about.
