Rangers reaction: Could John Lundstram be a casualty of regime change?; long live the King; error from previous era

There were surely hints as to how Michael Beale will utilise his squad offered by his starting selection for the first-rate 3-0 friendly victory over Bayer Leverkusen.

Could John Lundstram be a casualty of regime change?

It was intriguing that the new Rangers manager immediately paired Glen Kamara and Ryan Jack as his double pivots/ two holders/ anchor midfielders (delete as appropriate). The duo had never performed these roles alongside one another this season. Injuries have meant the pair have rarely been available at the same time, it should be said. However, even when that hasn’t been the case one or the other - mostly Kamara - has been required to defer to John Lundstram for a place in the engine room.

Giovanni van Bronckhorst appeared to lose faith in the Finnish international. Beale could hardly have more faith in the player. Post-match, the new Rangers manager served up a herogram for the 27-year-old who has been linked with a move away to revive a career flagging for the best part of the 13 months since Steven Gerrard’s coaching guru departed Ibrox with the former England captain to take charge at Aston Villa. “I'd always want him to be in a Rangers' team that I was coaching or watching,” Beale said of a midfielder with whom he has a “fantastic” relationship and knows, when showing the “real” Kamara, “how good he is”.

New Rangers manager Michael Beale's love-bombing of Glen Kamara could have implications for the game time given to John Lundstram. (Photo by Rob Casey / SNS Group)

It can be assumed that deployment of Kamara and Jack on Saturday was with a mind to fusing their talents for Beale’s first competitive outing, which rolls around on Thursday with the hosting of Hibs as the cinch Premiership resumes following the World Cup break. That is likely to leave Lundstram as the odd man out. The Liverpudlian struggled to win the favour of Gerrard and Beale following his arrival last summer, and in the dog days of van Bronckhorst’s stewardship, he often appeared lumbering and a guilty party over the sluggish tempo that afflicted Rangers.

Kamara and Jack do not provide the dig of Lundstram, but are more nimble performers. That was reflected in Rangers moving the ball more adroitly against the Germans than has tended to be the case in recent months. As a result, we could be about to witness one of Beale’s first notable departures from the team set-up as it existed before his Rangers return.

Long live the King

In giving his perspective on the changeover at Rangers that led to Beale replacing van Bronckhorst as his team prepares to faces them on Thursday night, Hibs manager Lee Johnson offered the aside “the king is dead, long live the king”. In the home dressing room at Ibrox over the weekend, though, it was a case of the Queen is dead, long live the King.

The portrait of Queen Elizabeth that hung there for almost 40 years has now been replaced by one of King Charles, following his ascension to the throne on his mother’s death in September. Club traditionalists appear to harbour a slight regret over the UK’s longest-serving monarch being erased by historical developments. Many who take such protocols seriously consider that as a welcome nod to past and present, portraits of the Queen and King could have been placed alongside one another.

Error from previous era

A new manager was in place at Ibrox on Saturday but an old aberration remained. Listed among the Rangers substitutes on the team sheet was one John Lundstrum again - as Lundstram’s name has been mistakenly documented on this info page earlier this season. One day his ‘a’ will come.