Rangers Find Foothold Against Aberdeen

Rangers finally found a foothold, but it has taken far too long.

The opening weeks of the season have been grim. Recruitment has dragged, the European campaign – if you’re being generous with that description – was a disgrace, and Derek McInnes has looked like a manager rifling through ideas rather than leading a clear project. Team selections, substitutions, formations: he has been flinging things at the tactics board and hoping something, anything, would stick.

Against Aberdeen on Sunday, something finally did.

This was the version of Rangers many expected from day one under McInnes: organised, disciplined, and just ruthless enough to get over the line. It wasn’t spectacular, but it didn’t need to be. It was solid. It was controlled. It looked like a team with a plan instead of a collection of trial runs.

In attack, only two players truly rose above the rest. Kim Min-Su played like he wanted to own the pitch, demanding the ball, trying to be the fulcrum of every move. Djeidi Gassama buzzed around him, sharp and lively, the one constant threat that Aberdeen never fully worked out. Between them, they gave Rangers a semblance of identity in the final third that has been missing for weeks.

The game still had its flashpoints. Referee Matthew MacDermid found himself in the spotlight over Kevin Nisbet’s disallowed goal, and the usual noise erupted online soon after the final whistle. But strip away the outrage, and the calls were clear. There were two issues in the build-up: a shove on Dujon Sterling and an offside. Put together, the decision to rule it out was correct. MacDermid got the big moments right.

What matters now is what Rangers do with this. A single afternoon of comfort and solidity cannot be allowed to stand alone as a freak result in a chaotic start. Falkirk away on Wednesday looms large. That has to be the next building block, not another false dawn.

The squad, though, is nowhere near finished. The clock is ticking on the window and the gaps are obvious. Rangers have been heavily linked with a striker and still need another right winger. On top of that, two midfielders are required to drag this group up to anything resembling the standard expected at the club.

There is plenty of work to do. The question is whether Sunday was the first sign of a proper Rangers side emerging, or just a brief pause in a season that has already tested patience to the limit.