Rangers and the curious case of catnapping after midweek purring

Rangers continue to betray curious catnapping tendencies.

Having bared their claws in midweek to maul Hearts, there was an expectation that they were on the path to shaking these off. Instead, a really odd performance in an eventual 2-1 win at home to Ross County was marked out by longueurs wherein they weren’t so much purring as giving the impression of being curled up and snoozing.

Indeed, an alarming drop off across the first half hour of the second period might have come back to bite them if fortune hadn’t intervened. It was as if the home side thought that going one-up in added time of the first period through substitute Malik Tillman meant that Ross County’s agility and feline reflexes to produce numerous blocks in and around their penalty box weren’t going to spare them. That conclusion threatened to be made to look as suspect as keeper Jon McLaughlin appeared when the 65th minute produced an unexpected equaliser. A short corner from the right that involved Yan Dhanda exchanging passes with Victor Loturi ended with all but Jordan White being posted missing as the resultant cross whistled into the box. The hulking striker, with a mighty leap, capitalised to glance a header into the far corner. Of course he did. White, you see, is becoming something of a specialist scorer in games against Rangers with this no less than his fifth in seven games against the Ibrox men.

Within 10 minutes the Fates would decree that this would earn nothing for Malky Mackay’s men, despite their smartly compact and bustling approach. There is no other way to describe the winner that ensued from Borna Barisic’s tame free-kick from 20 yards out to the right of the box. Limply looping into the wall, contact with White - it appeared - set the ball off on a completely different trajectory to see it spin away in the opposite direction off to the left to give rooted keeper Ross Laidlaw no chance of re-adjusting to block.

Rangers left-back Borna Barisic celebrates after his deflected free-kick sealed a 2-1 victory over Ross County at Ibrox. (Photo by Rob Casey / SNS Group)

As with many of the treacley wins for Beale’s team within their own environs, Rangers earlier issues - as their manager acknowledged afterwards in calling his attackers’ “fussy” in taking too many touches - centred on individualism overwhelming the collective. Fashion Sakala, Ryan Kent and Tillman - pressed into action 11 minutes in as a result of John Lundstram suffering an ankle knock - were all able to sweetly dance their way through the visitors’ backline. Only to then overcook their endeavours by dallying instead of applying the finishing sprinkle. A more direct approach resulted in a decisive difference as County were breached on the stroke of the interval. Todd Cantwell, tidy and measured throughout, showed his team what they had been missing when he took receipt of a lay-off from Alfredo Morelos down the right channel and burrowed his way towards the byline before engineering an instant release with a neat flipped cross that Tillman was able to nod in.

As Rangers looked to snuff out any hopes of an equaliser late on, Beale reshuffled boldly to introduce new signing Nicolas Raskin as one of three 83rd minute replacements. The £1.75m deadline day arrival from Standard Liege immediately made his presence felt by setting off on a mazy run that his new manager maintained afterwards showed he was not the enforcer-type sitter type as had been intimated in some quarters.