The 2nd game week of the 2021/22 Scottish Premiership saw defending champions Rangers travel to Dundee United to take on the Tangerines in their own backyard. Steven Gerrard’s men were on the back of a 40-game unbeaten run which also included their unbeaten league season last time around.
Dundee United, meanwhile, were on the back of suffering a first game week loss against Aberdeen. They were looking to pull off an upset against the defending champions as Stephen Glass is expected to make vast changes to his approach.
This tactical analysis features the tactics deployed by both teams and discusses how Dundee United managed to pull off an upset. Let’s begin the analysis.
Lineups
Both Dundee United and Rangers went with a 4-3-3 system and both of them played at least one of their new signings with Mulgrew starting for Dundee United and John Lundstram (ex-Premier League player) for Rangers in the midfield. The defending champions made four changes to the lineup to the team that won in the opening game week. Morelos, Lundstram, Helander and Barisic came into the lineup as Gerrard rung some changes.
Dundee United, on the other hand, changed their shape after 2-0 defeat to Aberdeen on last weekend as Reynolds and Shankland made way for Fuchs and Chalmers as Stephen glass went from 3-5-2 system to a 4-3-3.
Rangers’ positional play a mixed bag
Throughout his tenure as Rangers manager, Gerrard has always favoured the 4-3-3 formation with the 4-2-3-1 occasionally used in bits and pieces. Analysts and experts have also stated that his system has shown similarities to the one Klopp has devised at Liverpool with wingers inverted and rotating constantly while the full-backs push extremely high to provide width in a 2-3-5 shape. But in this game, their positional play was a mixed bag as Dundee United were able to counter them.
