Rangers v Spartans | A new season’s evolution for Rangers

Rangers continued their 100% start to the SWPL1 season with an impressive 6–1 victory over Spartans on Wednesday night at the Rangers Training Centre. The 2020/21 campaign ended with disappointment for the home side as a combination of injuries and poor results in their head to head clashes with city rivals Glasgow City and Celtic saw them miss out on both a first SWPL1 title and a place in the Champions League.

After a season that saw them go fully professional and completely regenerate their squad they have gone again this summer adding experienced internationals with Scotland striker Jane Ross the most notable along with Dutch midfielder Tessel Middag, Danish defender Janni Arnth and Jamaican forward Kayla McCoy all joining the ranks. Having started the league season in blistering form scoring 16 league goals and conceding just one they face their biggest test to date in the BBC Alba live game away to Hibernian this Sunday, a side who themselves have replenished their playing resources and come into the clash off the back of a 3–0 Edinburgh derby victory over Hearts in front of a domestic record crowd of 5,512 and Easter Road.

I headed to the Rangers Training Centre to assess how Malky Thomson’s side has evolved from last campaign against a Spartans side that can provide stuffy opposition for the league’s leading lights. So here it is. Five things. Let’s go.

Attacking fluidity could be key to success in the games that matter

Twenty minutes into Rangers victory over Spartans I looked at the formation I had jotted down in front of me and for a brief moment thought about scrunching it up and throwing it in the nearest recycling bin (save the planet kids!) such was the fluidity demonstrated by the Rangers midfield and forward line, a trend that would continue to catch the eye throughout the ninety minutes.

Rangers last season were built on structure and shape and so it was an interesting development to see a form of organised chaos unfold. At the point was Ross, her movement and hold up play allowing for space to be created for any one of Zoe Ness, Brogan Hay, Lizzie Arnot or Chelsea Cornet to run into. If Cornet decided to go, who’s home position was at the base of the midfield alongside Tessel Middag, then one of the remaining three stepped back to fill in the hole. If Ness, Hay or Arnot found themselves the furthest forward then Ross would drop back to plug that gap.

If the attack was focused down one side of the pitch then Arnot and Hay, nominally the wide attacking forwards in a loose 4–2–3–1, would squeeze the play narrow to create space for Rangers maurading full backs Nicola Docherty and Rachel McLauchlan, although this season those forward raids from the pair have felt more measured.

For the opposition it must prove a nightmare to defend against with no one player settling in a true position for more than a few minutes at a time but it also takes incredible concentration and on-field discipline to maintain. Both the players on the park and Malky Thomson were vocal in their desire to maintain this constant rejuvenation of the attacking problem Spartans were having to face. On Sunday this constant motion will be put to the test against an experienced Hibernian backline that last season found a formula to blunt opposing attacks. However, if the same attacking fluidity that pulled a well organised Spartans all over the pitch emerges on Sunday then it could be a fourth straight victory for the Light Blues.

It turns out having a fit finisher is really useful

Jane Ross took her goal tally to six in three SWPL games and eleven in all competitions on a night where she demonstrated every aspect of a game that has seen her capped 138 times for her country. Arun in which her tally of 62 goals is only beaten by record goalscorer Julie Fleeting in dark blue.

While her intelligent movement and selfless running have helped propel her to the top of the women’s game it is her prowess in front of goal that has given Rangers’ a new more potent edge. It was an edge that the signing of Glasgow City’s Kirsty Howat was hoped to bring but, after a promising start, the forward suffered a ruptured ACL during last season’s Old Firm derby at Celtic Park, denying Rangers the services of the 2019 SWPL1 Top Goalscorer. Her long road to recovery is set to continue for another couple of months yet and with Northern Ireland international Megan Bell another still to return from a long spell out through injury the signing of Ross has been a timely piece of business.

While her second was another fine example of her potency it was the opener that demonstrated her goalscoring instincts honed over the past fifteen years, the Rothesay native pulling off the Spartan’s central defenders to back heel flick Rachel McLauchlan’s cross into the bottom corner of Rachel Harrison’s goal. It was an impressive display of split second imagination and set the tone for another industrious performance leading the line, one where she too would taker her turn to drop back, allowing Ness, Hay or Arnot to take up position at the point of the attack.

Rangers rarely struggled to create chances last season but on occasion were unable to convert them into goals, both in those games they controlled and in those occasions where things were much tighter. In Ross they now have a thoroughbred goal-getter who can rack ’em up but will also be looked at to make an impact in the games that will prove decisive in the title race.

Tessel Middag wears №6 for a reason

The signing of Dutchwoman Middag was something of a coup for Rangers. The former Fiorentina midfielder had featured for The Netherlands at the 2015 World Cup and has experience not only in Italy but the WSL too, injuries though have hampered her in recent seasons, but it is those injuries that have perhaps helped facilitate her move to the SWPL, one that would have seemed unthinkable just a couple of seasons ago.

Against Spartans she was the anchor for the midfield manouvering playing out in front of her, bridging the gap from defence to attack and often stepping even further back when one of either Chantelle Swaby or Demi Vance would progress with the ball from the centre back area, something both are regularly keen to do.

Spartans were unable to assert any real pressure in what was a difficult night for the Edinburgh side but on the rare instances they looked to counter Middag was in place to snuff out the danger, an interception midway through the second half particularly key with multiple white shirted bodies set to breakaway. Of the midfield it would be Middag the one most happy to take a backseat and if she can maintain her fitness then Rangers may have acquired the foundation that will allow her teammates further up the park to play more freely.

The old defensive lapses continue to surface

Sixteen goals in three games is a tally that speaks for itself but it will be the one in the goals against column that will be of most frustration to both the players and coaching staff as the defensive lapses that punctuated last season surfaced again as confusion allowed Spartans substitute Caley Gibb to pounce to make the score 3–1.

In this game the concession ultimately didn’t matter as Rangers’ forward power accelerated the home side away form their Edinburgh rivals. The fourth goal from Chelsea Cornet, which came just a couple of minutes later, was hit with a ferocity symbolic of the collective annoyance emanating from dugout, pitch and stands alike at yet another goal that could have been avoided rippling the net.

By this point Middag had stepped back into defence to partner Northern Ireland international Demi Vance, meaning neither of Rangers centre backs were housed in their natural position, but the miscommunication that left Jenna Fife scrambling had an eerily familiar feeling to the Rangers fans watching in the stands and on RTV at home with Spartans nearly capitalising again a few minutes later.

The Middag/Vance partnership will be unlikely to run out for the clashes that will decide the fate of the title but it will be down to Vance, Chantelle Swaby (who by this point had made her exit from play), Scotland international Brianna Westrup (rested on the bench) and new Danish signing Janni Arnth to ensure that the mistakes that dented title hopes in 2021 are eradicated in 2022.

A youthful look to the future adds depth

Last season, Celtic in particular were able to supplement their squad with a handful of young Scottish talent, allowing for rotation and players to be rested when the opposition perhaps did not require the full extent of their arsenal to get the job done. An argument can be made that this rotation allowed for Fran Alonso’s side to pull out the late comebacks that became a trademark during their long unbeaten run, one which included two victories over their Old Firm rivals.

It was a commodity that Rangers appeared not to have at their disposal as moves were made behind the scenes to supercharge their Academy system. The early signs this campaign is that the supercharging is starting to reap some rewards with a number of prospects making their impact this term.

16-year-old striker Jodi McLeary and 15-year-old midfielder Emma Watson both got their first competitive goals for the club against Boroughmuir Thistle in the SWPL Cup and they, along with another 16-year-old, Kirsty MacLean all came off the bench with the game won on Wednesday night, Watson nearly adding a seventh with an ambitious shot from range that had Rachel Harrison in the Spartans goal scrambling to tip over the bar.

All have impressed despite their diminutive stature and while nobody will be wanting to, or should expect too much too soon Rangers fans should take quiet encouragement from the fact that Malky Thomson now feels comfortable enough in his next generation to rest key players and give game time to his talented youths with a long season to come.

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