Rangers business in the January transfer window pointed to a new direction in terms of transfers and that Philippe Clement will have the younger, more dynamic team he craves.
The squad that the Gers boss is imbalanced and yet he has still managed to drag the Ibrox outfit to within touching distance of the Scottish Premiership title.
There are obvious areas of weakness but there is one position where Rangers, on the surface seem to be ok but, as the performance against Hibs showed, Philippe Clement needs to address.
Philippe Clement needs to improve this one position for Rangers
Rangers have played 46 games so far this season with John Lundstram playing in 43 of them, only missing two in total throughout the campaign.
Predominantly, the 30-year old has been deployed as a defensive midfielder, deep-lying playmaker or number six, whatever you want to call it, basically, our deepest midfielder tasked with building play.
In possession, especially since Clement arrived, he has been first class and there is a reason why the gaffer is so keen to tie him up to a new deal:
“I’m totally confident about that.
“There’s a lot of love on both sides so then there will be a solution one moment.”
The player himself has also intimated that it is only a matter of time before an announcement is made, despite transfer links to Turkey:
“I have never shied away from saying how much I love the club and I would love to stay but it is obviously between me and the club to sort it out.
“I hope so (it is in the pipeline) of course, but that’s between me and the club, but I would love to stay.”
This is all fair and well but, the goal Rangers conceded showed that, if Clement wants to take us to the next level, that he needs to think about the long-term situation of the defensive midfielder role.
Steven Davis was perfect.
Positionally, he could read the game as well as anyone, however, he also had the passing range and finesse needed to break down stubborn defences.
It seemed as if he was playing chess whilst everyone else was playing checkers.
Lundstram is more functional, more lineal.
He is perfectly happy driving out of pressure with the ball or playing long balls to turn opposition defences.
Out of possession though, as we’ve seen recently, he still leaves a lot to be desired.
Against Benfica, Lundstram simply didn’t have the positional awareness or speed to close down his opposite number and, as a result, whenever we lost the ball, it became like a game of basketball.
It was the same at Ibrox when Hibs visited after the international break.
The goal Rangers conceded comes from Lundstram ball watching and not picking up the first runner.
He gets covered by John Souttar but he then ball watches again instead of picking up the second runner from midfield.
A ‘proper’ defensive midfielder reads the first pass and is already covering the run before the ball gets anywhere near Rangers box.
Nicolas Raskin, on paper, has that skillset, but he has fallen out of favour and Ryan Jack can’t be offered a contract extension due to his fitness issues.
The spine of any team is pivotal if long-term success is to be achieved and out of goalkeeper, centre-half, defensive midfield, attacking midfield and striker, Rangers need two out of five new players, which only makes the job that Philippe Clement is doing even more remarkable.
