Attitude improves but midfield questions remain for Rangers
Attitude improves but midfield questions remain for Rangers
Alasdair Lamont - BBC Sport Scotland CommentatorWed, September 2, 2026 at 10:21 AM UTC
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Derek McInnes said after Sunday's win at Pittodrie that he'd enjoyed his team's performance for the first time this season and it was easy to understand why.
It was really the first instance of Rangers displaying the required desire, hunger, guts - call it what you will - to claim an all-important maiden league victory. Dropping points again simply wasn't an option.
The win gave McInnes and the players a bit of breathing space and you could tell at full time what it meant to people like Lawrence Shankland to get that monkey off their collective back.
The attitude shown in that game is the bare minimum demanded by the supporters and they will hope to see that added to by some exciting, attacking football as the season progresses.
On the transfer front, with just a couple of days left in the window, the manager referred to bringing one more player in, widely thought to be the striker Kevin Kelsy.
Despite Rangers having done a massive amount of business this summer, there are still areas in which they look a little light.
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Daisuke Yokota is their only natural right winger and although he has looked reasonably bright so far, supporters might have hoped he would be back-up to one of the club's other targets.
Minsu Kim has been brought in and it remains to be seen where McInnes plans to use him primarily but he showed up pretty well on his debut at Pittodrie playing just off Shankland. The Korean looks to be relatively two-footed and so could be used on either side as well.
Rangers had also been looking to sign a left winger, though the early-season form of Djeidi Gassama has perhaps lessened the need for that. The issue will be if Gassama is as inconsistent as he was last season. Like Findlay Curtis he can also be used on the right but both tend to be less effective there.
With the departures of Connor Barron and Lyall Cameron, the battle for a central midfield berth has become a little less congested, but if Nico Raskin does leave, is there sufficient quality there to win a league title?
Dan Neil and Cammy Devlin both had arguably their best games in a Rangers shirt at the weekend but are they or any of the other candidates for those positions going to dictate a game in the way Callum McGregor has done for Celtic for many years?
And then defensively, the lack of a left-sided centre-back leaves them a little lop-sided, though Olwethu Makhanya has operated well there so might well find himself playing there at least until January.
But as McInnes acknowledged, he has been well backed this summer and regardless of how much more is done before the transfer window closes, he should be able to assemble a team capable of building on that first league victory and challenging for the title.
Source: “AOL Sports”
