Rangers Show Signs of Improvement in Victory Against Aberdeen

Rangers finally found something that looked like a football team on Sunday – but it has taken far too long to get here.

The start to the season has been grim. Player recruitment has dragged, the European campaign was a humiliation, and Derek McInnes has spent weeks flinging ideas at his squad in the hope that one of his line-ups, substitutions or formations might click. Most of them haven’t.

Against Aberdeen, though, his side at last resembled what this Rangers team should have been from day one. They were organised. They were disciplined. They were, crucially, solid. It wasn’t spectacular, but it was controlled, and they got over the line with a degree of comfort that has been badly missing.

The challenge now is obvious: this has to be a starting point, not a freak result that flatters to deceive.

In attack, only two players truly emerged with credit. Kim Min-Su looked like he wanted to run the show, demanding the ball and trying to be the fulcrum of everything Rangers did going forward. Djeidi Gassama brought energy and intent, stretching Aberdeen and giving the side a spark that has been absent too often in recent weeks. Around them, there was effort, but not enough incision.

The refereeing, at least, did not add to Rangers’ problems. Matthew MacDermid got the big calls right. That has not stopped the usual contrived noise online about Kevin Nisbet’s disallowed goal, but the decision was clear. There were two separate issues in the same passage of play – a shove on Dujon Sterling and an offside. Either one was enough to chalk it off. Together, they made the outcome inevitable.

Rangers can’t afford to bask in a single competent performance. Falkirk away on Wednesday looms large, and this display of calm and solidity has to be the standard, not the exception. The squad still looks short, and everyone inside the club knows it.

A striker has been heavily linked. Another right winger is needed. Two midfielders as well. That is the shopping list, and time is running out. There is a huge amount of work to do before this group can be talked about as anything close to the level required.

Sunday might have been a step in the right direction. The real question is whether Rangers can turn one solid stride into a sustained march.