Yesterday’s opening day of the 21/22 season had a LOT for Rangers fans to dissect, not least the latest hilarity from Celtic. But our own house is what matters and there’s a fair chunk of analysis to get through from Saturday’s action.

The first thing we’ll look at in this piece is the drop off. We started with a fantastic win and another clean sheet with an XI that was some distance off our strongest, but the drop off around 30 minutes was slightly alarming and something Steven Gerrard was very critical of.

To be clear, the first 30 minutes were high-octane and superb football, which just required an extra goal or two. Sadly, the boys did take their foot off the pedal around that 30 minutes and play got sloppy, loose, and slow.

Of course, Livi were absolutely no threat, and despite that major lull from 30-75 minutes the home side ran out deserved winners. It was entirely comfortable.

But for major periods, it was definitely below what this team is capable of – we’re definitely not being negative, we’re just agreeing with Stevie that while the win was pleasing, the lull wasn’t, and we need our team to be hungry for the whole match, not just portions.

Livi were hardly a major hurdle, and it was all alright on the night, but better teams than David Martindale’s side will present challenges this season and Rangers must remain completely aggressive.

As we’ve previously preached like a broken record, we need to earn 56, need to earn progression. That middle spell smacked a little of complacency and we don’t want to see our players thinking they’ve won till the final whistle tells them they have.

Onwards and upwards.