The Connor Goldson Rangers drop-off myth, a Kemar Roofe conundrum and GVB's Hibs pace poser

And yet - only 10 days on - Jack Ross’ men will be facing a very different proposition, something the Dutch manager alluded to in his comments to the press on Tuesday.

He said with a blunt but polite authority that's becoming a trademark: “I have a different style than the team used on that day.”

Van Bronckhorst has already changed the 4-3-2-1 favoured in the Steven Gerrard era into a more dynamic 4-3-3.

Whether he plays two sitting midfielders, as you’d expect, or one as he did against Livingston at the weekend, those allowed to get forward will really have the shackles taken off. It’s this freedom that has seen Joe Aribo suddenly transformed into a consistent scoring threat.

READ MORE: Rangers AGM news round-up: All the key points from today's meeting

And the supporting attackers, or twin 10s as Gerrard would have it, are now playing as traditional wingers, providing width from the touchline. Ryan Kent is now picking up the ball in dangerous areas closer to goal, where he has one man to beat rather than two or three.

There are still issues to face though as the new manager tinkers with the winning formula he inherited. 

Dealing with the Hibs tactical system

Ross clearly watched quite a bit of Rangers ahead of the semi-final at Hampden. The tactically intelligent Hibs boss clearly identified the problems Malmo and Slavia Prague created with their use of wing-backs and doubled down with an aggressive decision to place Kevin Nisbet and the rapid Martyn Boyle right on top of the Ibrox centre backs.

It proved to be an devastating plan that saw Hibs, unthinkably 3-0 up after 38 minutes.

Given the success of this system, you can’t imagine Ross will be too keen to deviate from it at Easter Road - but that may prove his undoing.

GVB has already shown himself to be highly flexible when it comes to shape and he’s been open about adopting a philosophy rooted in the ability to change in context of an opponent's strengths. In two games, Rangers have already employed at least three systems depending on the game state at the time.

READ MORE: Slick Rangers show Giovanni van Bronckhorst's tactical Midas touch in dominant win

Van Bronckhorst outlined his position to our reporter Derek Clark yesterday when he said: “I know to be dynamic in the system and changing within the system is very important now in modern football. We also have the players to do so. In that objective, I’m very happy with the balance in the squad. We will prepare every game differently because different opponents need different strategies and different players as well. I’m just happy with the depth this team has.”

It will be fascinating to see how he applies a "different strategy" to Hibs’ attacking threat, especially the explosive pace of Boyle.

Case for the defense

There’ no doubt the magisterial, seemingly impenetrable defence of last season has been suffering apparent malfunction so far this term.

A failure to adequately deal with set-pieces have been at the heart of the issues but individual mistakes have also been a significant problem. And it’s a difficulty that has already hit home in the GVB era when Connor Goldson misjudged the flight of a rudimentary long ball and allowed Alan Forrest a shot that created Livingston’s goal on Sunday.

It was the kind of simple error that simply wasn’t seen from a record-breaking unit as the team bulldozed its way to a 55th title.

There’s a growing narrative that defensive leader Goldson’s form is significantly diminished from the Titan he was last season. But as neat and tidy as the narrative is of a man whose heart is not fully committed to the cause due to a failure to agree a new contract - it’s not backed up by the data.

The first radar is his performances this season, the second last term.

If anything, the Englishman’s numbers show an improvement year on year with a big rise in the volume of interceptions and very similar performance across other areas. He is still in the top 90 of Premiership players in most areas of defensive importance.

It’s hard to escape the notion that the defensive woes this term have been structural at heart (with the odd individual error thrown in!). The new manager made it clear to his squad on day one that good defending needs all ten outfield players to take part. This has clearly been taken on board by Alfredo Morelos because the static striker of late-era Gerrard has been replaced by someone looking much more focused and committed. If he’s chasing down defenders, they simply won’t have time to pick out the accurate long-balls that have caused Rangers problems this season.

Perhaps seeing this single idea in action will see meaningful improvement at the back.

How to best utilise Kemar Roofe

Roofe is a natural finisher, second only to Jermaine Defoe at the club. A player of intelligence and guile, he drifts into clever positions and is deceptively good in the air for someone who doesn’t have a traditional target man frame.

Having been injured for the beginning of the GVB era, the striker trained yesterday and will be assessed today to determine if he can play a part in Edinburgh.

We’ve seen enough evidence over the last few years that Alfredo ‘army of one’ Morelos isn’t comfortable in a partnership so it will be a case of rotation or working Roofe into unfamiliar wide positions.

While he can play there comfortably, he’s never been a winger of the Dutch tradition (think Marc Overmars) the new boss seems to favour.

All of this said, Roofe is just too talented a player not to make his mark. It will be fascinating to see how he’s accommodated going forward.