Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst has claimed his side ‘took over’ Wednesday night’s derby against Celtic, in a strange display of apparent delusion.
Van Bronckhorst has been hammered by Rangers supporters since their 3-0 defeat at Celtic Park, feeling he got his team selection and tactics wrong for a must-win derby.
The former Dutch international set up his team pragmatically but in a manner that didn’t allow them to press Celtic effectively in the first half.
Ange Postecoglou’s rotation of wide players and midfielders caused havoc with our rivals and Celtic rushed to a 3-0 lead by half-time.
At that point, the Bhoys undoubtedly took the foot off the pedal, bringing down the intensity levels and making a raft of second-half substitutions.
Van Bronckhorst sees it differently, telling Football Scotland: “I believe in the system, but we need to make sure we keep doing the things we always did. Those are the basic things. We had a really bad start. We weren’t ready for the game.
“I’m sure if we have those things back, or do much better than we did the last couple of games, we will be fine. We knew Celtic were going to push hard for the early goal. The first 20-25 minutes, there was a storm. Then we took over.”
Yes, you read that right. The Rangers manager thinks they took over the derby. It’s utterly bizarre.
The visitors did have more possession in the second half but they created nothing. They didn’t test Joe Hart once. Celtic were quite content to allow them to have the ball and reserve energy, knowing the game was over.
The second half certainly wasn’t any vindication for the Rangers boss’ tactics or system, rather the natural result of an absolute bodying in the opening 45 minutes.
Ultimately this strange take could be a good thing for Celtic. If the Ibrox boss isn’t willing to examine what went wrong tactically in that game, it only bodes well for future meetings. Bring it on.
In other news, Matt O’Riley senses ‘something special’ happening at Celtic, lauds Lennoxtown culture.
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