By Alistair Aird
I’m not a fan of the international break. That’s not because I’m apathetic towards Scotland or any other national team, I just miss watching Rangers. It doesn’t matter how grim it is – and there’s no escaping from the fact that recent matches have been turgid and not exactly pleasing on the eye – I’d choose watching my boys in blue over any other team on the planet.
But one of the pleasing aspects of the two-week hiatus from club football was the performances of John Souttar for Scotland. Very much the lone Ranger when Steve Clarke looks to pick a starting XI, Souttar was a standout in the wins over Croatia at Hampden and Poland in Warsaw. In the previous round of fixtures, ‘Soapy’ was man of the match as he helped nullify Cristiano Ronaldo in a goalless draw at Hampden, and he capped off his stellar displays with s sumptuous curling cross to create the winning goal for Andy Robertson in Poland.
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If you discount friendly fixtures, Souttar pulled on a Rangers jersey for the 74th time this afternoon against one of his former clubs, Dundee United. He turned out in tangerine 73 times before he moved to Hearts for whom he made 162 appearances between 2015 and 2022.
After penning a pre-contract agreement in January 2022, Souttar arrived at Ibrox on a four-year deal the following summer. He was still a couple of months short of his 26th birthday, but looked to be an excellent addition to a backline that had helped propel Rangers to the Europa League Final in Seville. But injury would blight his early days as a Rangers player.
Souttar made his debut on the opening day of the season – a 2-1 away win over Livingston – but had missed several matches in the latter days of his time at Tynecastle after having surgery on his ankle. He was also dealing with the loss of his brother, Aaron, who had passed away aged 42 following a battle with motor neurone disease. Amid the process of grieving for his brother and having not fully recovered from the ankle operation, perhaps Souttar shouldn’t have played. But he showed great resilience to do so. His reward? A substitution after 67 minutes and seven months out of action.
Eventually further surgery was required to fix the ankle problem, and in total, Souttar missed 50 matches for Rangers. That included the ill-fated Champions League campaign and the League Cup Final against Celtic. He returned on 4 March 2023, replacing Ben Davies a couple of minutes into stoppage time in a 3-1 win over Kilmarnock at Ibrox.
By the conclusion of the campaign, Souttar had made 13 appearances, opening his scoring account with a bullet header in the majestic 3-0 win over Celtic. A further 41 matches were played in season 2023/24, but there was a run of six league matches between 29 October and 6 December when he didn’t play a single minute. He was also an unused sub for the League Cup Final against Aberdeen and injury cost him his place at the heart of the defence for the Scottish Cup Final against Celtic.
But this season has witnessed a first sustained run free of injury for Souttar. And Rangers and Scotland are reaping the rewards for that. The only game he has missed was the 2-1 win over St Mirren in October, and he has played every minute in the other 19 games. His omission against the Saints was explained by Clement. In essence, the redoubtable Souttar was in ‘the red zone’ which meant he ran the risk of injury if the Belgian had selected him to play.
With Connor Goldson now plying his trade in Cyprus, Souttar is a first pick. He has been criticised at times by the Rangers supporters, but this season, he has been a solid and dependable presence in the Rangers rearguard. Going forward, provided he remains injury-free and avoids any suspensions, one would assume it will be Souttar alongside either Leon Balogun or Robin Propper for the remainder of the season. For this one, he would be joined by the latter who would unfortunately but perhaps predictably produce another unsteady, uncertain display.
Souttar and Propper were joined in back four by Jefte and Dujon Sterling. That meant that flip flopping of selecting and not selecting James Tavernier continued. Clement has said that that would be the case as the season progressed. At the age of 33, Tavernier’s game time would have to be managed, but with Neyaysho Kasanwirjo seemingly ruled out for the long term, Sterling looks like being the man who will be called upon to step in when the skipper isn’t selected.
Every game Rangers play in is important, but seldom in recent times can a league match with Dundee United have carried as much significance. With Celtic and Aberdeen threatening to disappear out of sight in the title race, Rangers were looking down rather than up. United arrived in Glasgow just three points adrift of their hosts. The differential in goal difference was plus two in Rangers’ favour. If languishing in third place was difficult for the home support to stomach, slipping further down the league ladder would have been cataclysmic. An away win would however make that a distinct possibility either today or in the next couple of weeks.
The proposed 1545 kick off came and went with no sign of the teams emerging from the tunnel. But at 1553, ‘Simply the Best’ boomed out and we were good to go. The question was simple; which side of Rangers would we see, Dr Jekyll or Mr Hyde?
As the Rangers team stripped off their tracksuit tops, Souttar stood out. He was the only player wearing a short sleeved blue jersey! He would play on the right side of the central defence, with Propper to his left. In front of him would be the two terriers, Raskin and Barron, although the latter did seem to be taking up a more advanced position than normal.
The game started in typical fashion. Rangers had no tempo or rhythm in their play and was symptomatic of what we have been witnessing for a while now. Admittedly, United’s game plan was to sit deep and frustrate – their manager had admitted as much in his pre-match press conference – but slow, plodding play at pedestrian pace wasn’t going to break that down. There needed to be more incision, more zip to the passing, but passages of play like that had been conspicuous by their absence in the opening 10 minutes. The only effort on goal had been a ‘daisy cutter’ from distance by Cerny that was easily gathered by the United goalkeeper, Jack Walton.
Someone needed to grab the game by the scruff of the neck. Take a risk to try and make something happen. Cerny and Jefte combined to try and do just that, but the Brazilian’s cut back was cleared. Raskin then shot from the edge of the box, but his effort sailed over the crossbar.
Cerny was the bright spark amongst the gloom. When he got the ball, he at least looked to make something happen. He was forward thinking, but he was in the minority. And the opening quarter of the game was summed up when Propper emerged from defence, looked up with a view to make a pass forward, then spun round and played the ball back to Souttar.
On 23 minutes, Raskin drew a diving save from Walton and Propper skidded a header wide of goal. But the attack continued to be impotent, with the forever maligned Dessers having only touched the ball twice. And with one of those touches, he gave the ball away.
Nedim Bajrami looked to ignite the blue touchpaper after 28 minutes when he set his sights on goal. And he almost succeeded, curling a shot with his right foot towards the bottom right-hand corner that was clawed round the post by Walton. Rangers made a mess of the resulting corner which meant the long wait for a goal from a set piece would continue.
There would be another opportunity to break the set piece duck for season 2024/25, though. On the half hour, Diomande was tugged back some 25 yards from goal in a central position. With Tavernier huddled up on the bench, Cerny addressed the ball, but his shot thudded into the United wall. Cue more murmurs of discontent although they are understandably fast becoming a hallmark of matches involving this Rangers team.
Rangers forced a couple of corners in succession but there would be no threat on Walton’s goal. There was an inevitability about what was coming next, and it arrived after 36 minutes. Sam Dalby was found in acres of space in the heart of the box, and he easily directed a header beyond a helpless Butland. A lengthy VAR check for a possible offside followed but there would be no reprieve. Lamentable defending had been the root cause of a goal conceded by Rangers yet again.
Souttar tried to spring Rangers forward when he zipped a ball over the top, but Jefte couldn’t gather. And Dessers then sliced the ball wide from the corner flag. Just as you thought it couldn’t get much worse, it was. And had it not been for a lunging Souttar making a goal-saving block, it would have been the direst of straits before half time.
Propper had the ball in the net deep into stoppage time, but it was ruled out due to a handball by Barron in the buildup. The cacophony of boos when the whistle sounded was as predictable as the deplorable Rangers performance.
Clement has been drinking in the last chance saloon for weeks now. When he came in, he said he wasn’t a magician and didn’t have a magic wand. Even Harry Houdini would struggle to escape from his current predicament, but the manager tried to effect a change in fortunes by making some alterations.
After touching the ball a mere eight times in the opening half, Dessers was replaced by Danilo, while Diomande made way for Hagi. It was the most positive thing Clement had done for ages, which sums up how negative it has been. Even a novice manager would have made the changes. Hagi was a creative, forward-thinking number 10 playing in the number 10 position, while quite frankly anyone would have been better than the dire, dreadful and depressing Dessers.
Souttar almost equalised when he threw himself at a deep Barron cross, but his defensive buddy, Propper, was caught napping at the other end when he allowed David Babunski to tower above him. Fortunately, he skewed his header wide of Butland’s goal.
After 55 minutes, Danilo passed up a golden chance to level the match. Hagi and Cerny combined in the inside-right channel, but when the latter picked out the Brazilian, he tugged his shot across goal and wide. That was touch number six of the match for him, and just before an hour elapsed, he had a shot blocked. That effort meant he had surpassed the terrible total touches of Dessers in the opening half. It was better, but that wasn’t exactly difficult given how terrible things had been up until now.
And then it came, that fleeting moment of brilliance, that rare incisive passage of play that was needed. Cerny played the ball in to Danilo who played it back into the Czech’s path. Cerny did the rest, calmly sidefooting the ball across the goalkeeper and into the net.
Danilo’s impact had been immediate, and Hagi had been positive too. You would have to suspect that they will now be given opportunities to start games, but again, with Clement in charge, you never know. For example, the Brazilian’s absence from the European squad more than likely means Dessers will be back in the starting XI on Thursday in Nice.
The manager made his umpteenth like-for-like change when he brought on Ridvan Yilmaz for Jefte, and the tiny Turk arrived in time to see Danilo and Cerny combining superbly again on 70 minutes. The Brazilian forced Walton to make a diving save as he manoeuvred himself into the box and Cerny then had the ball in the net only to have his effort ruled out for offside.
Hamza Igamane was introduced for Bajrami. Could the manager be changing his ‘structure’ and going 4-4-2? Of course he wasn’t. The Moroccan took up the wide-left position, and the rigid 4-2-3-1 remained in place. That resistance to changing the shape of his team will, among many other things, be the Belgian’s downfall.
There was another timely intervention from Souttar at the expense of a corner after 85 minutes, and his commanding clearing header sent Rangers on the attack. Hagi fired in a shot from distance that was parried by Walton, and as United tried to snuff out Danilo’s follow-up, there was a good, old-fashioned stramash in the six-yard box. The ball was cleared, though, and a subsequent VAR check for a penalty couldn’t give Rangers the redemption they were looking for.
Hagi tried to fashion the winning goal but ballooned the ball into the Copland Stand. The barnstorming, grandstand finish was yet to catch light, and even when the fourth official indicated that there would be a minimum of eight additional minutes, there wasn’t much hope coming from what were now sparsely populated Ibrox stands. The ‘bold’ move to deploy John Souttar at centre forward did little to stimulate much more.
Walton thwarted Igamane’s shot from distance and his looping effort onto the roof of the net was the last action of another gruelling afternoon/evening at Ibrox. The final whistle signalled the end of the match, and one would hope Philippe Clement’s time as Rangers manager too. He has supped his last drink in the last chance saloon. It’s time to put his glass down and exit through those swinging doors. There is no certainty that will happen, but for Rangers to go forward and prosper again, it must.