Eight things we learned about Rangers at Dens

As we pause for a couple of weeks before the Old Firm match to take in the international break, Rangers leave for the fortnight with a well-earned 3 points against a solidly-organised Dundee side who deserve credit for getting so close to taking something today.

Ibrox Noise brings you 8 things we learned at Dens Park:

1: Allan McGregor hates toilet roll. Lighthearted one to start with, the protests over Australia didn’t go down well with Greegsy who called the fans “f****** *rseh*les” (fill in the blanks). In fairness, their behaviour was disrupting Rangers and playing into Dundee’s hands so while the motive for the protest was fair, the choice of protest itself was misguided.

2: Rangers are simply a different beast in Europe compared with domestic. Our players rarely look fully up for facing SPL opposition, and the hunger which punctuates European matches isn’t there to a 10th of that same level at home.

3: Not a single January signing is looking like a good acquisition yet. Sands, Ramsey, Diallo and Zukowski have failed, deep into March, to impress at all. Compare this with the sizzling impact Ianis Hagi made in January to March 2020 when he arrived as a loan. It’s been a long time since Rangers made a signing that actually delivered, outwith the rise of Lundstram.

4: Gio deserves criticism for such a poor first half, or the players do, but certainly the manager deserves all the praise for fixing it so much for the second. He made a lot of changes and those changes worked out.

5: Arfield needs rested. The guy is on empty, and at 33 he’s hardly a spring chicken. He needs to be used much less so he can have more impact.

6: Lundstram’s rise from ‘donkey’ to Rangers’ best outfield player has been incredible – every match he’s delivering the same level, lots of defending in the middle, defending at the back, and sweeping balls up the pitch. He’s been an absolutely outstanding signing, now that we’re finally letting him play in the right position.

7: A win of champions. This will have broken Celtic’s hearts, who would have been convinced we were losing, then drawing. They would have been desperate for us not to win, but what we got out there was gritty and grafted. The kind of win that wins titles.

8: We loved the retro 150 kit.

That’ll do for now.