Rangers' New Era Under Derek McInnes Begins With Stumble
Derek McInnes’ Rangers reign began not with a roar, but with a reminder of how far there is to go.
Twelve months on from Russell Martin tearing into his players after an opening-day draw at Motherwell, Rangers opened another league campaign with the same 1-1 scoreline, this time at Dundee United. The mood, though, was very different. No fireworks. No fury. Just a blunt acceptance that this is a work in progress.
A stuttering start to a new era
McInnes walked into Tannadice with a new badge on his chest and a new blueprint in his head, but the first 45 minutes showed just how fragile this Rangers side still is.
Lachlan Rose punished them in the first half, his finish giving Dundee United the edge their energy and cohesion deserved. Rangers looked stretched, open, and anything but compact – a point brutally underlined by former midfielder Andy Halliday.
“No matter how many defenders you play with, the main fundamental is being compact, and I thought Rangers were the furthest thing from compact,” he said on Sportsound. On this evidence, he had a case.
McInnes had handed debuts to goalkeeper Ivor Pandur, centre-back Ben Godfrey and ex-Hearts pair Cammy Devlin and Lawrence Shankland. It was a bold, almost symbolic selection – a clear attempt to stamp a new identity on a dressing room that has known too much upheaval and too little success.
The reality? A team that looked like strangers for long spells.
A response, but no ruthlessness
Rangers did improve after the break. They had to.
Thelo Aasgaard, the standout in blue, dragged them back into the contest with the equaliser, a reward for a brighter, more assertive spell after half-time. The goal injected some belief, the passing sharpened, and Dundee United were pushed back for the first sustained period.
But the pressure never truly became domination. The door was ajar; Rangers never kicked it open.
The game’s late flashpoint told its own story. Jesse Randall found himself bearing down on goal, only to dink a tame effort straight at Pandur. On another night, that’s the moment that buries McInnes’ debut in real trouble. Instead, it exposed how vulnerable Rangers still are when asked to defend space and transitions.
McInnes didn’t dress it up.
“It’s disappointing – we’ve dropped a couple of points, but we weren’t good enough to get all three,” he told Sky Sports. The honesty matched the performance: some promise, plenty of problems.
Patience urged, flaws exposed
Former Rangers striker Steven Thompson, watching on for BBC Radio Scotland, urged calm rather than crisis.
“It’s not the result Rangers wanted, but it is a point away from home at a difficult venue,” he said. “Other teams will come here and find it very difficult.”
He stressed the obvious but important truth: this is the first game of the season, not a verdict on McInnes’ tenure. The manager is still waiting on key signings, still trying to impose his demands on a group that has already lived through two managers and “plenty of disappointment” in the last year.
Halliday, though, cut closer to the bone. He felt Dundee United’s individuals, Aasgaard aside, outshone their Rangers counterparts. That is not a line any Rangers manager wants to hear on opening night.
“Rangers are a work in progress,” Halliday said. “I think they’ll still make additions to try and improve, but it certainly wasn’t the start they were looking for.”
Recruitment needs laid bare
If the scoreline hinted at a slow burn, the performance screamed of gaps in the squad.
Godfrey’s hamstring issue adds another headache at the back, especially with uncertainty around whether new signing Olwethu Makhanya will receive a visa in time for Thursday’s Europa League qualifier away to Jagiellonia Bialystok. Defensive reinforcements are on the list. They may now be non-negotiable.
Yet it was out wide where the shortcomings felt most stark.
Djeidi Gassama started on the left but lasted only 45 minutes before being withdrawn. By the end, Rangers had Mohamed Diomande and Aasgaard operating in narrower roles, searching for spaces between the lines rather than tearing down the flanks.
McInnes did not hide his frustration with the lack of one-v-one threat.
“I thought second half as the game got stretched, we had opportunities to play in the spaces and we need people with the ability to go past [defenders],” he said. “We still would like a winger to go get at people, make a difference and get people on the back foot.”
He knows his forwards are living off scraps right now.
“Our strikers are all dependant on service. We’re working hard and we know what we want.”
Dan Neil and Ross McCrorie came off the bench to offer fresh legs and a glimpse of what’s to come, but this still looked like a team halfway through a rebuild, not one ready to dictate a title race.
One game, many questions
McInnes has been around long enough not to be spooked by an opening-day draw. His message was simple: time, trust, and more players.
“It’s one game,” he said. “We are going to get better as we go along.”
That may be true. It has to be.
Because while a point at Tannadice can be spun as acceptable in isolation, Rangers have lived this story before: dropped points, familiar flaws, talk of transition. The difference this time must be what comes next.
The new era has started with a stumble. The question now is whether Rangers can turn that into a stride before Europe and the league table start asking harsher questions.
