It was Rangers’ job to come up with the creativity to break Jablonec down and what a meal they made of it. A 12-course banquet of huff and puff finally brought to an end by one of the few bouts of coherent football that led to Ryan Naderi’s winner.
The positives won’t take long. A one-goal lead to take to Jablonec next week; a clean-sheet; industry from Djeidi Gassama and James Penrice; assured defending from Olwethu Makhanya; signs of improvement in Naderi; a full-time whistle not accompanied by booing, as the half-time whistle had been.
It was a tough watch, though. Rangers in that first half lacked movement and cleverness and X-factor. They were an eyesore. Time and again, defenders looked downfield for a pass to hit only to see their team-mates looking back at them, unmoving and tightly marked.
Poor old Emmanuel Fernandez had another difficult experience but there were times when you had sympathy for him.
Wanting to be positive in possession and play forward, he had no options, nowhere to go but back, which drew groans of derision. When he gambled with a risky ball and failed to find a target, there was another uprising. Angry, angry, angry.
He gestured at one point, a waved arm that suggested he wasn’t over-burdened with runners ahead of him.
McInnes spent much of his night walking madly about his technical area. That’s a confined space, but his step count will have been stratospheric. He probably crashed through the 10,000 steps in 15 minutes. Perhaps he needs help, another coach with a different skill-set, new and more imaginative thinking.
