Rangers v Shkupi – 10 things we learned…

So Steven Gerrard’s fledgling Rangers career got off to a winning start tonight under the Govan floodlights in the first round of Europa League Qualifying.

Ibrox Noise takes you through things we think we noticed. How many do you agree with?

1: Alfredo Morelos is getting worse. The petulance, profligacy, and attitude simply stinks and we are getting absolutely fed up of the sight of him. He’s the same player as last season if not worse. Unless the lad brings in goals and soon, we couldn’t ship him away to Turkey quick enough. Even then, there’s better out there who can anyway.

2: Josh Windass is either hot or not – when he’s hot he’s devastating, but tonight he wasted countless chances and created next to none himself. Wasteful, and weak.

3: It is incredibly early days and by Lord we hope we’re wrong but if Hibs destroy some Faroese mob 6-1 and Celtic gub a UCL side 3-0 away from home, but Rangers can’t even manage two goals without help from a bad refereeing decision aiding us, this team is even further away from challenging at the top of the SPL. Sorry guys.

4: We cannot understand why Gerrard brought on Ryan Jack as an attacking midfielder. Someone will need to explain this because we’re at a loss.

5: Ovie Ejaria looks a good prospect – should have had a penalty, and physically similar to Nathan Oduwa without the fancy theatrics, he could be one to watch this season.

6: Defence was poor – no other way to describe it – it wasn’t tested a huge amount but it struggled with what did come its way. Finding its feet we hope, but while Katic individually impressed, the pairing with Connor Goldson didn’t.

7: Flanagan had a strong match at LB – a real touch of quality and had a particularly good first half. Probably better than Declan John who may find Flanagan doing to him what he did to Lee Wallace.

8: Glenn Middleton was the best player for Rangers by a distance. He has already earned a starting slot – that’s three excellent shifts for the young man in a row and this time it truly counted. He’s ready.

9: Steven Gerrard cut a mostly frustrated figure – as if the players aren’t following his instructions or his instructions themselves are flawed. We can’t tell. All we know is this was barely any better than the Progres performance last pre-season and if Stevie was under any illusions of the gravity of the task, he isn’t now.

10: James Tavernier is about as much a captain I am an astronaut.

Much to ponder, chew on, and cogitate.