Rangers home form under Giovanni van Bronckhorst has been excellent, nine matches, nine wins, and nine clean sheets are surely title-winning form? Well, it would be if our away performances weren’t disappointing and costing us ground as Celtic are now leading the way.
There is no doubt about it, the Ibrox crowd and atmosphere provide plenty of lift to the players and are absolutely crucial, but the differences between home and away performances under Gio are frightening.
Rangers need to improve away performances under Giovanni van Bronckhorst or risk losing the title to Celtic
Following a home win over Sparta Prague in his first match in charge, Rangers prevailed 3-1 away to Livingston in what is always a tough encounter. A narrow victory against Hibs followed by a solid win against Hearts all looked like we were going in the right direction in the hunt for the title.
Then the winter break happened, nullifying all momentum we had gathered pre-Christmas and our first game in 2022 was a woeful 1-1 draw against Aberdeen.
This was followed up with a 3-3 draw against Ross County in which the Ibrox side just couldn’t see out the game, having been on top for the majority of the 90 minutes, with individual errors proving costly.
The less said about the visit to Celtic Park the better, but it was our worst showing under GvB and probably the worst overall since the post-Christmas nightmare-inducing performances of 2020.
Full credit to the team who rebounded excellently in recent home wins over both Edinburgh sides, but this away form needs to improve, and fast, if we harbour any ambitions of retaining the league title and securing the £40m Champions League jackpot.
The club faces three important away ties in quick succession, starting off in the Scottish Cup against Annan, before moving onto Germany with a mouth-watering tie against Borussia Dortmund and ending with a crucial league match against Dundee United.
This eight-day period could make or break our season, let’s hope Gio and the squad can replicate Rangers Ibrox form into away success.
