But they certainly looked heavy-legged in that first hour or so. Having said that, you must give credit to St. Johnstone who played some great football and looked a lot sharper than their opponents. If the performance of St. Johnstone on Saturday is anything to go by then Rangers will have to fight very, very hard to retain their championship.
And Saints thoroughly deserved to take the lead after 14 minutes through Alan Kernaghan but the marking by the Light Blues defence left a lot to be desired.
I know Lorenzo Amoruso and Bert Konterman haven’t played together before in the centre of defence but someone should have been picking up Kernaghan who was in acres of space. Even in the dying seconds of the game St Johnstone had a free-kick which fell to Paul Kane and nobody was within twenty yards of him. Only a good save from Der Goalie Stefan Klos prevented a last-gasp equaliser.
Defensively they’re going to have to work a lot harder because good sides in Europe and Celtic too will punish them. Dick Advocaat is often applauded for making tactical changes which turn the game and I felt he did it again on Saturday with the introduction of Neil McCann.
The former Hearts man replaced Tony Vidmar at half-time and made a helluva difference. He gave the team a balance which had been lacking previously.
They started to dominate the game a lot more and all it took was two minutes of magic from Dodds to secure victory and wrap up the three points.
He struck his two goals in the 55th and 57th minutes and he could probably have fired two or three more.
Even without his two goals I thought wee Doddsy was great. His lay-offs, movement and touch was great and he deserved his man-of-the-match award.
He’s the guy on form just now and thank goodness. If it wasn’t for him Rangers could have had two stinking results to kick-off the season.
If Gers want the wee man to notch even more he needs the ball into his feet – not big high ones into the box. Albertz slotted two killer passes into his feet and he delivered two goals. Not a bad return.
The transfer deadline for a new striker who can play in Europe arrives tomorrow and Dick Advocaat must try and get someone in because Dodds – good player as he is – needs help. It showed against Zalgiris Kaunas, they weren’t the greatest team in the world but Rangers were made to fight for their victory and other, much better, teams might punish them. Herfloge boss John Jensen was in the stand on Saturday and he would have been happy with what he saw in the first-half.
In the second-half, he would have noticed how well Gers can turn it around so he’ll go away with two things in mind, the good Gers and the bad Gers.