LOOKING at social media and talking to supporters, you sense the jury remains out on Giovanni van Bronckhorst as Rangers manager.

And yet his results so far make very good reading by anyone’s standards.

25 matches into his reign, the Dutchman has a 72% win rate and has only lost one match. Perhaps the issue is deeper than results.

In the Steven Gerrard era, the team looked remarkably drilled and even a tactical layman could see the fingerprints of the coach on the team. It was three years of creeping change and steady improvement with the original concepts embedded in a pre-season trip to Spain remaining intact.

While a narrative developed amid van Bronckhorst’s arrival there would be little change, it’s obvious now the opposite has been true.

While Gerrard had one fixed idea that did not change beyond personnel, the new manager is clearly a pragmatist who will chop and change to fit the challenge.

Even against the likes of Dundee United, a mid-level Premiership side this season, it was clear that van Bronckhorst was thinking about how best to tinker with his side – unthinkable under the previous manager.

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James Tavernier would start the match at centre-back, a change that was to last around three minutes.

After the game, van Bronckhorst explained how different formations had been prepared to help break down the Terrors, depending on how Tam Courts set his stall out.

He said: “We prepared our team in two different systems. Because we didn’t know how Dundee United would play. Normally they play 4-3-3, I think in one game earlier this season they played with five at the back. They changed back to that today so we had to alter.”

It was the first sight of van Bronckhorst as an outside the box thinker and tactical tinkerman. It has not been the last.

John Lundstram is the most dramatic example. Converted from a box-to-box midfielder, he is now the tactical fulcrum of the side, capable of switching between midfield and defence in the blink of an eye.

The manager took one look at Lundstram’s physical prowess and thought he’d be capable of playing in defence. Such thinking is of no surprise given van Bronckhorst switched positions midway through his own career, having gone from a talented midfielder to a world-class full-back. And it seems apparent an ability to adapt to circumstances might be at the core of his beliefs.

A word repeatedly used in reference to how he wants his team to play is “dynamic”. Ahead of the first leg against Red Star, he said: “We’ve played in different systems, we’ve played against different systems and I think, especially in Europe you have to be very dynamic but I think we’ve shown against Dortmund that we are capable in doing that.

“We’ve prepared well for tomorrow so we know their way of playing when they have the ball and the way they want to press. In the end, it’s still a game, anything can happen, you can change the systems but I think we are very versatile in our formation to play in different ways.”

It’s no surprise then, in the last few games, there’s been a sense of something chameleon-like about Rangers. They change in moments of the game. It’s difficult to pin down, and that’s exactly the point. Opponents will also be struggling to work out what to prepare for. They now look markedly different. The attacking full-back roles that defined the Gerrard era have undergone significant tinkering. Gone is the flat midfield three that filled the holes they left on perennial forays into enemy territory. Binned are the two number 10s that wandered menacingly around the half-spaces. What was said to be a gentle evolution has actually seen the winds of significant change.

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When it has worked, like in Dortmund, there’s no doubt it’s been spectacular. Similarly, when his best-laid plans fall apart or fail to spark it can look a touch disjointed and awkward like against Aberdeen at Ibrox.

Essentially, the switch from Gerrard to van Bronckhorst has been a move from ideologue to pragmatist. Will all the tinkering work over the long haul?

The answer to that question will be measured in trophies but there's no doubting Rangers are now starting to show the “dynamic” personality of the manager in their play. And it’s a development that’s come not a moment too soon. Three games against Celtic are likely in April, a testing, tantalising trio that will almost certainly decide the season.

The jury may still be out, but we know the verdict is in the post and will be delivered promptly.