REDS ROUT GIVES GIO SOME RESPITE
Dutchman sees side show steel to battle back and blitz Dons as Beale watches on
JIM GOODWIN promised a fearless approach from Aberdeen, instead it was the beleaguered Giovanni van Bronckhorst who was delivered an unusually confident performance from his players.
The Dutchman has become a little too accustomed to watching his team fold but after falling behind in the first quarter of this game they came up with a forceful response that saw them lead by half-time and strolling down easy street by the time Alfredo Morelos tucked away the fourth.
After drubbings at the hands of Celtic, Ajax, Liverpool and Napoli, Van Bronckhorst was fielding questions over his job security even before Davie Martindale’s Livingston came to Ibrox and claimed a point last weekend.
He’s handled it all with grace and calm yet the sight of Mick Beale taking a seat in the main stand prior to kick-off wouldn’t have made him feel any more stable in his position.
Beale left Ibrox not 12 months ago to join Steven Gerrard at Aston
Villa but the suspicion that he was the power behind the throne that delivered ‘55’ has not been quelled by his exploits since branching out on his own at Queens Park Rangers in the summer.
While Gerrard is now out of work, Beale has the west London club riding high in the Championship table, his stock high enough to afford him the luxury of turning down Wolves a couple of weeks back.
There’s nothing to suggest he’s being teed up as the next Rangers manager, nor need there be anything sinister about his presence as an invited guest.
There will, however, be plenty of Rangers fans eager to latch on to his attendance. And so it was important that Van Bronckhorst offered something tangible to back up the positive outlook he preached prior to this game.
This was the first meeting of these teams this season, the scheduled game at Pittodrie being postponed on account of the Queen’s death last month.
Occasionally slick but more often flaky, Goodwin’s side have been up and down this season and his pre-match confidence was designed to squeeze a little more from his talented if not yet cohesive side.
Just as Antonio Colak has hit the ground running with an impressive consistent strike-rate for Rangers so Bojan Miovski — a North Macedonian internationalist — has been a regular scorer for the Dons.
Here the 23-year-old joined the powerful Luis ‘Duk’ Lopes in attack and was overshadowed by his partner who forced the Aberdeen goal and deserved better support.
The Dons were hanging tough at the point they took the lead.
Goalkeeper Kelle Roos wasn’t being troubled in the early stages but there was a steady drip of shots on goal as Ryan Kent, James Tavernier and Colak all had a go.
It’s become customary to see goalkeepers try to build play through their central defenders but that wasn’t the Dutchman’s brief here.
Every time he gathered possession, he’d shell it high and long, an attempt clearly to rattle and turn the Rangers defence.
The home team’s efforts weren’t aided by the early injury sustained by Ridvan Yilmaz as he blocked Jayden Richardson’s cross.
Borna Barisic arrived in his place but was finding his feet as Aberdeen struck. While Miovski toiled, Lopes was proving a hard-running handful for Leon King and, slipped through by Leighton Clarkson’s fine pass the Portuguese ought to have applied a scorer’s touch.
Instead, he chose to twist King this way and that before being bundled over by Tavernier at his third shooting opportunity.
Walsh was presumably letting play develop as the ball broke for Connor Barron to fire home.
The crowd may have been considering mutiny but were quickly back onside after a rapid response from the players.
The movement of Fashion Sakala, Kent and Malik Tillman was pulling the Aberdeen back three around and there was heaps of space for the latter as he alighted on Lundstram’s firm forward pass.
Burrowing into the right channel, the American knew he could rely on Colak for the cutback. An accomplished first-time finisher, the Croatian swept home.
Van Bronckhorst has been warming to the pacy charms of Sakala in recent weeks but the Zambian blew a real chance to score when placed through on Roos, overrunning the ball to the point where his eventual effort was as much a 50-50 as a shooting opportunity.
Tillman had one blocked by Anthony Stewart as Rangers turned the screw and in stoppage-time their second arrived.
Ross McCrorie got himself into trouble with Kent, conceding a freekick from which Rangers scored.
Roos did his job by diving low to save Tavernier’s shot from a half-cleared cross but just when he needed help from one of his own, it was a Rangers defender who got there first.
Ben Davies clipped the ball across goal and Lundstram applied a finish to rowdy acclaim.
After some early-season issues following his transfer from Liverpool, the emergence of Davies has been a relief for Van Bronckhorst, whose defence has been depleted by injuries to John Souttar, Filip Helander and Connor Goldson.
So the last thing he needed was for the Englishman to be deemed unfit to return for the second half after injuring his groin.
Scott Arfield appeared in his stead, with James Sands moving back from midfield.
Encouraged, Aberdeen threw a ball into the box immediately after the restart but Lopes headed Richardson’s cross over.
The wow factor has been missing from Tavernier’s displays of late, and there has been a strong suggestion that he is carrying an injury.
If his trademark barnstorming runs weren’t back in evidence, his knack for nicking a goal was.
Teed up by Barisic’s cross from the left, the Ibrox captain climbed high above the static Jack Mackenzie to head home.
There should have been a second for the Englishman, too.
The day’s one VAR intervention invited Nick Walsh to consult his monitor after the referee initially waved play on following a handball that saw the ball kick up off Richardson’s foot and onto his outstretched arm.
Urged to review the incident at the monitor, Walsh reversed his decision but Tavernier cracked the spot-kick off the post.
Five minutes from time, Morelos completed the rout when he met Sakala’s cross at the back post to turn home an easy finish.
Denied by an earlier offside flag, the Colombian had to wait for a VAR check to confirm the legitimacy of his goal but didn’t skimp on the celebrations in the meantime.