Why Michael Beale’s tactical revolution at Ibrox means Celtic may have a worthy adversary once again – scout report

Rangers, the historical club in the Scottish Premiership, are on their way back after Michael Beales return to Ibrox but this time as manager after Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s departure.

The 42-year-old manager was a part of Steven Gerrard’s staff who won the Scottish title in 2020/21, the first in a decade and the 55th league for Rangers. He followed Gerrard to Aston Villa later.

“100 per cent” was a direct answer from Beale when asked if Rangers can get back to the top with him and if he is confident he is on track to deliver trophies sooner. But in my first year as a manager, what was I investing in? The future” he added.

Beale always insists he can return Rangers to the top of the Scottish again after Celtic’s domination hence, this tactical analysis, in the form of a team scout report, dives into his tactics at Ibrox and what makes them unbeaten in the league under his guidance.

In-possession approach

Generally, Michael Beale believes that playing from the back directly is important to reach the final third where his team attempts overloads and combinations play to disturb the opposition’s backline. Beale knows the final outcome is not performance but results and that reflects in his approach.

The English coach is a big admirer of the fluidity and flexibility around the pitch and said before that the formation is not all that important, so when varying between the flexible 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3, the in-possession 4-3-3 is the primary structure.

Rangers try to build the play from the deep in a flexible way where the no.6 drops between the centre-backs, meanwhile, the fullbacks move up further or the defensive midfielder keeps his position, based on the situation.

From this point on, Beale is instructing and training his players to have the intelligence to move in and out of different zones to execute some of the attacking variations to reach the goal as quickly as possible. The game is more general way always about trying to find ways to give your team numerical superiority as he said.

Rangers’ attacking variations and ideas are demanding on different movements from the midfielders and the three forwards in front. Gaining fluidity and dictating the length of the pitch are the primary ones where Todd Cantwell, Beale’s first signing, is important.

The first and main idea of dictating the length is initialising the situations to reach the dropping striker between the lines by a direct laser pass.

Here, in the below scene, the left-back reaches Morelos who drops and then combines with the winger. Meanwhile, Cantwell intends to attack the backline and space had been produced by this attitude.

The midfield becomes more fluid to drop or attack different zones. Here, Kamara drops between the centre-back which gives the left CB roam to move forward and ready to reach the striker with a forward pass.

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