ONE area of Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s management that is hard to criticise is his ability to exploit opposition weaknesses.
In most domestic games, this isn’t all that necessary. After all, Rangers should have enough to overpower most league opponents. However, in European matches, van Bronckhorst’s tactical tinkering has proved consistently influential and on Saturday at Tynecastle, he used Hearts’ aggression against them to build a two-goal lead.
Robbie Neilson instructed Barrie McKay to man-mark John Lundstram, a midfield double-pivot of Cammy Devlin and Orestis Kio to block central passes and his wingers to pressurise either full-back if the ball played wide.
Seemingly, this was to limit Connor Goldson and Ben Davies’ passing options on the ball, with Lawrence Shankland only applying pressure in moments and seeking to trap either centre-back if they moved forward to break lines. Below, for example, the forward engages only once Davies has stepped forward and wrapped a pass into midfield.
Why is this relevant? Simply put, this type of pace was rare. Rangers were happy to regularly miss out the midfield in moving the ball into the final third.
Look at the passes played by Davies and Goldson on the day. They largely looked sidewards in anticipation of an opening higher up the pitch, before playing direct passes over the top.
Look at the long pass Goldson played for the first goal, which made its way to Ryan Kent via Antonio Colak after initially falling short.
READ MORE: Antonio Colak's ruthless returns revealed in Rangers' punchy 4-0 performance
Kent is stretching the pitch and in space, because Scott Arfield’s run in between centre-back Lewis Neilson and right-back Michael Smith attracts the Hearts full-back inside.
It’s strikingly similar to the run Joe Aribo makes between full-back and centre-back last year in a 2-0 win at the same ground.
Notice too that Colak has dropped really deep to drag centre-back, Stephen Kingsley, out of position.
Although Goldson’s ball isn’t on the money this time, when it breaks down Smith has been dragged infield and Kent is free to receive in space and cross for the opener.
The ball played over the top for the second was distributed by Lundstram. As Davies steps forward below, and lays the ball into Barisic due to a lack of passing options, Lundstram covers his centre-back and moves into a position where he can receive the ball.
Looking from the reverse angle, Rabbi Matondo and Kent are again hugging the touchline. Hearts’ full-backs, like the first example, are unable to mark up touch-tight in order to protect the highlighted spaces from midfield runs. Rangers are stretching the defence and posing the threat of central runs simultaneously, just like they did during the win at Tynecastle in December of last year.
The left-footed pass is inch-perfect and Matondo drives infield before reversing the ball into Colak. Using the threat of his pace down the side to buy yards infield.
The movement of Colak to drag Kingsley deep at the first goal, the wide positions of Kent and Colak and direct distribution from defence clearly shows these attacks were pre-meditated, rather than a reaction to Hearts’ midfield marking.
As previously discussed, Rangers have room to improve when breaking teams down but when there is space to play into, this team can be ruthless.
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