Ibrox Noise spoke of the importance of the three points at Easter Road yesterday. We basically alluded to the absolute critical nature of winning, and how everything kind of rested on Rohl for this one. There was a little bit of disagreement from some happy clappers on the site and page, who suggested that this was not that important, to say the least. We disagreed. However, the win has happened, and the reaction is simple. This was a critical win. It is the first time that Rangers have won two matches in a row in the league in as long as we can remember, which is a very sad thing to say. Danny Rohl’s Rangers improvement is noticable.
Have Rangers Turned a Corner?
Does this mean that Rangers have turned a corner? Winning two in a row in itself doesn’t mean an awful lot, but winning two in a row when you haven’t done so in ages, with what appears to be a bit of an improvement on the pitch, albeit there’s a long way to go, does hint at something clicking a little bit. We have been on the fence from start to Rohl. We didn’t condemn him, but neither did we outrageously support him. Ibrox Noise was on record as saying that we would wait a fair few matches before we started to make any kind of assessment on his legitimacy and validity. We’re still in that boat, but we do see some signs of improvement here.
Work Rate and Effort
We’ve already discussed the formation, of course, but the downright work rate level has definitely improved all round. There’s no question that Rangers are working harder than they were. There still isn’t enough fight. There still aren’t enough big lads bruising the opponents. Unfortunately, with shorter lads like Max Aarons and Conor Barron, you’re not going to get an awful lot of thumpers who are able to bully opponents off the ball. But that said, there is definitely more energy out there. There is something a bit better.
New Manager Bounce or Real Change?
Is this new manager bounce? It could well be. Yes, we are not going to call this anything more than an improvement for now that means very little unless it continues. That is all we can say and all anyone who has wisdom and caution would say. Because the fact is we have seen so many false dawns over the last 13 plus years that we are not going to buy into anything until we can trust it. And two matches isn’t enough to build trust, but it is nicer to be talking about wins than not. So yes, there is definitely something better happening, but whether it’s new manager bounce, we can’t be sure. Danny Rohl’s Rangers improvement is visible. But Clement got it. Beale got it. Admittedly, Russell Martin did not get new manager bounce at all. But Rohl is, time will tell if this swallow makes a summer or if it’s yet another false dawn. We are certainly hoping for the former.