Déjà Postecoglou

 

Saturday saw the club kick off the 2021/22 season with a tricky home fixture against David Martindale's Livingston. Livingston may have lost a few of their big players like Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, Jon Guthrie, and Scott Robinson but they still have a decent core in Nicky Devlin, Scott Pittman, and goalkeeper Max Stryjek as well as bringing in a few new faces so this was by no means a gimmie fixture. 

When the team was announced I'm sure there were more than a few surprised exchanges among the fans. No McGregor, no Barisic, no Roofe, no Lundstram, and no Helander. This looked like a line-up with Tuesday's fixture against Malmö in mind. You'd be forgiven for showing a bit of nervousness at this, especially with how important it was to set down a marker. However, when you looked at the line-up objectively it was a strong line-up and showed just how far the squad has come under Gerrard. We could field a second starting eleven and you'd have to fancy them to give the first eleven from this game a right good challenge for the league title.

The Fans

It was also a special game because it was the first competitive match that fans were allowed back into Ibrox since COVID-19 caused an early end to the 2019/20 fixture. Only 23k fans were able to attend of the 46k season ticket holders, a blow to many fans, but a step in the right direction. I was originally assigned a seat but due to family commitments I was unable to attend but watched the game on TV and the atmosphere started brilliantly.

It was probably to be expected given the long wait for us to be allowed back into the ground but it was great to see the fans cheering on the players and the excitement as the squad warmed up pre-match. There was a lot of buzz and discussion in the days leading up to the match however about if the fans would boo the players taking a knee prior to kick-off. So much so that our captain James Tavernier released an open letter to the fans addressing the controversy and explaining the reasons and that it wasn't a gesture done in support of the BLM organisation.

I'm not going to tell you what you should or shouldn't think, whether you should approve of, or disagree with the taking the knee gesture. I do think though that even if you disagree with it you're there to support the team and booing them won't inspire them to give their best. I'm not saying they won't try as hard if you do, but it's human nature to feel deflated when someone who is supposed to be there supporting you is booing. So it was great to hear the large majority of the fans cheering the team as they did this, and from speaking to friends who were able to attend very few chose to boo.

There was a lull period for the fans midway through the game, and that's no real surprise as the same can be said for the action on the pitch, but the final 10-15 minutes saw that boost to get the fans jumping again and enjoying their day all the more. Buoyed ready to see how the rest of the opening day fixtures would progress. 

The game

Rangers started off like a greyhound race, Hagi scoring a lovely goal in the opening 8 minutes and they could have had a couple more. You could see that none of the hunger or desire from last season had been lost, and that is a real credit to Gerrard and his backroom staff. Unfortunately, Hagi took a knock shortly after the goal and was subbed early, something that was hopefully just precautionary as he was able to walk off the field.

The game did fall flat for a period after this as Livingston tried to make things hard for Rangers, but the team was never under any pressure and I'm not sure McLaughlin had a save to make. The team didn't panic and were very comfortable in possession, slowly wearing Livi down and not really coming out of 1st gear. Eventually, there was the 2nd goal in the 78th minute as a Ryan Kent shot was deflected into the air, bounced, and was hit with a beautiful outside of the right foot half volley from Scott Wright that settled into the far side of the goal.

The match was already over when Kemar Roofe was the quickest to react to a scramble in the box and turn the ball home from short range. A comfortable 3-0 win against a tricky opponent, in a game where we had 1 eye on Tuesday and never really came out of 1st gear. You can't ask for much more than that.

Calvin Bassey looked very good filling in at left-back for Borna Barisic, he's shown a lot of progression from last season, and while he's still raw and needs to work on his crossing we potentially have a player who could make the position his own should Borna move on in the next couple of seasons.

Hagi looked lively in the opening few minutes, and Scott Wright didn't drop that standard from when he came on. I think we could have a real battle on between those two for the most improved player this year. Kent continues to terrorise opponents, Tavernier looks back to his best and John Lundstram looked every bit the EPL player when he came one. Fashion Sakala Jnr had a fairly quiet game when you compare it to his first start against Real Madrid, but it's important to remind ourselves he only joined up with the squad a couple of weeks ago and I'm convinced he'll play a big part. A special mention for me though goes to Steven Davis, 36yrs old and still the best midfielder in Scotland.

8pm

Without spending too much time discussing that lot, it was good to see that, much like ourselves, not much has changed from last season. A serious dose of Déjà Vu as they lost to Hearts in what was already a must-win game for them following an early Champions League Qualifiers exit to a Midtjylland side who looked like they had only started playing football a day or two before the game.

What was even sweeter about it was to see Ange Postecoglou already losing his cool with the media, showing even less restraint than his predecessor, in the post match interview, seeing the goalkeeper they let walk for nothing pulling off two brilliant saves to deny them even a point (which still would have been a poor result) while their two keepers haven't pulled off 2 saves in 3 matches, and finally seeing their fan base reduced to masonic conspiracies so early on in the year.

We hadn't even reached August and we were seeing the manager crack, the fans planning demonstrations to rival last years sharknado's, and the paranoid legions come out in force. Even Dave King couldn't have realised just how right he was when he made his now-famous pack of cards speech.

The important thing is we don't make the same mistake they did, which is to let the hubris take over and take our eye off the ball while we spend our time and energy laughing at them instead. I'm fully convinced that won't be the case with this board, or with our fan base after what we've come through... but a little hubris and a little bit of laughter are certainly allowed.

Now on to Tuesday and the first step to being back where we belong, A seat at the big table.

The Rambling Ger

Twitter - @GerRambling

IG - TheRamblingGer