Rangers needed a second half fightback to see off Motherwell with Philippe Clement turning to his bench to make a difference.
The Premier Sports Cup still has a chance of returning to the Ibrox trophy room even if the manager isn’t concerned about silverware and years only for consistency.
Pat Nevin praised Clement’s intervention for Rangers and the BBC pundit is right, credit where credit is due, what he got right in the second half turned the game – hopefully, he learns from it.
- READ MORE: Jack Butland admits what happened in Rangers dressing room at half-time of Motherwell win
Five reasons to be cheerful for Rangers fans
At a time when positivity is low, here are five things to be upbeat about from the Hampden victory.
The dynamic midfield duo
Connor Barron and Nicolas Raskin appear to have solved a problem in midfield.
On paper, it appeared to be one or the other situation, however, they have formed a solid partnership together.
If one goes, the other stays and they can be seen, frequently, hunting in a pack to win back possession.
They also have something that not every player in the squad has – a strong mentality.
The work rate, desire and attitude of the pair is something that should encourage even the most glass half empty Rangers fan.
The return of Danilo
Danilo maybe didn’t get much of a sniff at goal, but from the moment he replaced Cyriel Dessers, he caused problems.
The 25-year old dragged Motherwell’s defenders into areas that they didn’t want to go to whilst Dessers had spent much of the game hanging around the back post.
Rangers winning goal simply doesn’t happen if Danilo doesn’t take three defenders away from Nedim Bajrami.
Dujon Sterling shows Rangers what they’re missing
James Tavernier thinks that he is having a good season, and yet, the appearance of Dujon Sterling immediately improved Rangers performance at Hampden.
His first involvement was an overlapping run to create space for Vaclav Cerny and he also showed his recovery pace to good effect to stop a Motherwell attack before it could get going – drawing a loud cheer from fans that wouldn’t have gone unnoticed on the bench.
Had Tavernier been on the park, the ball would have ended up in the box, and who knows what would have happened from there.
Mohamed Diomande makes a difference for Rangers
A subtle shift of tactics saw Mohamed Diomande have the sort of influence that his talent is capable of.
The Ivorian hasn’t quite hit top gear this season but his performance at Hampden is encouraging.
Diomande played almost as a second number eight and had a key role in Rangers winning goal, switching play to Vaclav Cerny.
With Tom Lawrence an injury doubt, now should be Diomande’s chance to prove that he can be the main man.
Wing wizards Rangers can rely on
Rangers, finally, have players on the wing who can make a difference, cause teams problems and add numbers.
Cerny and Bajrami are the two best players at Clement’s disposal but knows that he now has Ianis Hagi as backup and Oscar Cortes to return too.
The dimension that they added that has been missing is an obvious one, but one that makes the forward line so much harder to play against – they both ran behind Motherwell’s defence.
Capable of cutting inside or attacking the by-line, the two wide men ran always looked like Rangers most likely threat, and so it proved in Cerny’s pass to Bajrami for the winner.
It’s not a lot, but it’s a start – as long as Clement saw what everyone else did.
