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Rangers went top of the Scottish Premiership for the first time this season as they beat Dundee United 4-2 at Ibrox on Saturday afternoon.
Taking the lead through Ryan Naderi after half an hour, Dujon Sterling scrambled home his first goal in 758 days to double their lead ten minutes later, only for Amar Fatah to reduce the deficit for the visitors in first-half injury time with a fine individual strike.
A close-range strike from Thelo Aasgaard shortly after the break restored the two-goal lead and looked to seal the win. Jim Goodwin’s side struck once again, though, with Zachary Sapsford netting from close range with little under 20 minutes to play. However, substitute Bojan Miovski would seal victory with a goal five minutes from time on a dreary day in Govan.
While Hearts can restore their place at the top of the division with at least a draw against basement side Livingston tomorrow, the result completes a remarkable turnaround for Rangers under Rohl, who were 13 points off the summit following the worst start to a league campaign in 47 years under former head coach Russell Martin. Here are our three key takeaways as Rangers go top of the table with a 4-2 win against Dundee United...
Rangers' Ryan Naderi celebrates as he scores to make it 1-0 against Dundee United at Ibrox on Saturday. | SNS Group166-day miracle
Rangers may have gone top for the first time this season with the victory over Dundee United, but there are six ‘cup finals’ to go before they even think about their first title win since 2021. However, quite how Rohl has managed to put Rangers into any sort of position to be considered as potential champions is nothing short of a miracle.
Let’s cast our minds to October 20, when Rohl was appointed. Sitting between chairman Andrew Cavenagh and former sporting director Kevin Thelwell, his introduction to life at Ibrox was a rough one. The club had plummeted to serious depths. Eighth in the Premiership, 13 points behind, no home league win in 159 days, and their worst start to a season in 47 years. Records were being broken right, left and centre - and none of them positive ones.
On arrival, he asked his team to put together a small run of consecutive wins. Thoughts of wrestling the title out of the hands of Celtic were an afterthought. Rangers simply needed to get their pride back, one weekend at a time. He’s been able to do that, and then some.
Has it been plain sailing for Rohl? Absolutely not, there were even points in Saturday’s game against Dundee United that exposed some of their shortcomings (more to come on that below...), but ultimately, with six games to go, his side now has as good a chance as any at winning the title despite everything that threatened to block that route upon his arrival. Whatever happens next, Rohl has shown over the course of 166 days what former incumbent Russell Martin couldn’t in a similar timeframe - that he was 100% the correct choice to lead Rangers forward.
Danny Rohl has completed a 166 day miracle at Rangers. | SNS GroupA weight lifted
His first goal since his seven-figure move from Hansa Rostock in February, Naderi’s celebration following his opener was more of relief than elation. The German was the story on transfer deadline day, as the Rangers board pushed out the boat to bring him to Ibrox ahead of the second half of the campaign, in the hope his goals could help them win the title tug of war between themselves, Hearts and Celtic.
Outside of two goals in an 8-0 thrashing of Queen’s Park in the early rounds of the Scottish Cup, the marksman had drawn a blank in his first seven league appearances for the club. Murmurs of discontent had been at a minimum in fairness, but strikers are judged solely on goals, and Naderi won’t have wanted the run to go on much longer than it already had. Forced off with an injury at the break and replaced by Youssef Chermiti, the German will be praying he’s ready to return against Falkirk next week so he can build on an impressive display.
Rohl’s new mystery
Ahead of the game, the Rangers boss had kept fans guessing after confirming one of his key men had picked up an injury in the lead-up to the game in Glasgow. All was revealed when Rohl’s line-up was confirmed, with left-back Tuur Rommens missing due to a quad issue. The 36-year-old head coach has a new mystery to solve - why are Rangers suddenly conceding goals?
Results are the most important. After all, if Rangers win all of their remaining six games of the season, they’ll win the title, regardless of how many they concede on the way. That said, one clean sheet in their last eight league games doesn’t make for comfortable reading. Conceding 11, his side is letting in an average of 1.75 goals per game across that time period.
In the eight games prior, they had kept five clean sheets and conceded a mere four goals. As the split appears on the horizon, Rohl will want his Rangers team to revert back to the strong defensive unit that first put them back into the title conversation at the turn of the year.