Rangers' New Era Under McInnes: Key Players and Tactical Changes
Emmanuel Fernandez spent last season gliding through Scottish football like a luxury model on a bumpy road. Elegant, composed, dominant in both boxes – Rangers’ “Rolls Royce” centre-half looked every inch the marquee defender the club had been crying out for.
But even the finest machine can veer off course. And Fernandez has a habit that could drive Derek McInnes round the bend.
Fernandez walking a tightrope
The big defender loves a Cruyff turn. One, sometimes two. On the edge of his own box. It’s the kind of swagger that thrills a crowd when it comes off, and has a manager chewing the touchline when it doesn’t.
McInnes, who built his reputation as a player at Ibrox on reliability and relentlessness, will not indulge many lapses. Not from his defensive leader. Not in a season where Rangers are trying to rip up the recent script and write a new one under yet another new boss.
Fernandez’s first campaign in Glasgow showcased his upside: calm under pressure, progressive on the ball, a serious weapon at set-plays. But if he doesn’t strip the unnecessary risk from his game, he’s heading down a dangerous road. McInnes wants his players uncomfortable. For Fernandez, that may mean parking the party pieces and embracing the ugly side of defending.
A squad rebuilt, but still with gaps
Rangers have been busy. Again. The summer has brought what feels like a conveyor belt of midfielders through the door, yet the squad still looks light in key areas.
That elusive creative spark remains a priority, especially after Thelo Aasgaard’s recent shoulder scare underlined just how fragile the attacking options are. Behind Tuur Rommens, cover at right-back is thin. Out wide, the picture is even murkier, with both flanks still short of the kind of specialist wingers McInnes wants to stretch teams.
This is the reality for Scottish clubs every summer. European qualifiers land early, the money they bring is vital, and squads need to be near-ready before the rest of the continent has even broken sweat. It’s a vicious circle that never seems to break.
While Rangers scramble to piece together a group capable of navigating early-season landmines, clubs in the Big Five leagues are boarding long-haul flights, easing through glossy pre-season tours and taking their time over deals. When they decide they fancy a Nico Raskin type, they move. Until then, they wait.
That’s why there is no urgency for Tottenham to rubber-stamp Mikey Moore’s return to Govan. They’ll want a proper look at the youngster in pre-season before even thinking about sanctioning another loan, never mind spending heavily again on a Savinho-level signing. Rangers just have to live with that.
McInnes’ first XI and the Naderi question
For all the noise around the rebuild, one name jumps out in McInnes’ first league XI: Ryan Naderi.
The German striker gets the nod to start ahead of Youssef Chermiti and Bojan Miovski, both on the bench and both desperate to make an early statement. Naderi arrived in January from Hansa Rostock in Germany’s third tier, Rangers paying serious money for a player who had been the focal point of their attack. His early promise in a Light Blue shirt stalled with injury, but the glimpses were enough.
Tall, aggressive, relentless in the press, Naderi harries defenders and attacks both boxes with the kind of hunger that draws comparisons with Kenny Miller’s graft in his pomp. If, as expected, McInnes leans on his No. 9 and No. 7 as the main strike pairing this season, the German may have to make his living from the bench at times. Tonight, though, he has the platform – and he faces a side he has already scored against.
Behind him, the bench offers a first look at a clutch of new faces. Dan Neil, Olwethu Makhanya, Ross McCrorie and Vanja Dragojevic are all waiting for their Light Blue bows, each of them part of a squad that has been torn up and stitched back together in a matter of weeks.
McInnes brings back the old Ibrox edge
McInnes knows this club. He won almost everything as a Rangers player in the 1990s, when Ibrox was a trophy factory and the expectation was suffocating. That is exactly the feeling he wants to recreate.
He has been blunt: if his players feel comfortable, something is wrong. This is a squad that has been accused of mental fragility in recent years. Late collapses, missed chances in big moments, titles and cups handed over with barely a fight. McInnes has come in to change that, not massage it.
His new captain, Lawrence Shankland, is central to that mission. The big debate all week has been how McInnes fits Shankland alongside Chermiti. The answer, at least for the opener, looks like a front two, with Shankland operating slightly deeper, linking play and setting the tone off the ball.
It is a bold call, but bold is exactly what Rangers have lacked in their attacking structure. Shankland will lead the team out at Tannadice, the face of this new era. How quickly he and Chermiti click could define the early months of McInnes’ reign.
New faces, familiar pressure
The last time Rangers started a league season, the mood was strikingly similar. New manager. New signings. Fresh optimism. That campaign opened with Russell Martin’s side stumbling to a disappointing draw at Fir Park against Motherwell, led by his former team-mate Jens Berthel Askou. Motherwell were supposedly in flux; Rangers were supposedly ready. The script didn’t care.
The sense of déjà vu is hard to ignore. Again, a new man stands in the technical area. Again, the club has churned through a summer of upheaval. Again, the fanbase is being asked to believe this version will be different.
Dundee United provide the first examination. Rangers have snapped up eight new players so far, with Philadelphia Union defender Olwethu Makhanya the latest arrival, checking in at Ibrox on Thursday. He will have to wait for his chance. At Tannadice, the central defensive pairing is expected to be Atalanta loanee Ben Godfrey alongside Fernandez, the heart of a retooled backline.
Behind them, £6 million goalkeeper Ivor Pandur steps into Jack Butland’s gloves, preferred to Liam Kelly as the new No. 1. Out wide in defence, the faces are more familiar: Dujon Sterling and Rommens are likely to start.
In midfield, Neil and Cammy Devlin will form the engine room, two summer recruits tasked with setting the tempo and snapping into tackles, their job as much about attitude as distribution. Ahead of them, Aasgaard – who cut short his post-World Cup holiday to force his way into the picture – is in line for a role on the left, with Mohamed Diomande potentially operating from the right as Rangers continue their search for specialist wingers.
Touchline fire and a late twist
McInnes will be on the touchline, his four-game SFA ban for comments made as Hearts boss put on hold while he appeals. It is a reprieve he cannot waste. The manager who demands discipline from his players must show it himself.
Nick Walsh takes charge of the opener, with Calum Spence and Jonathan Bell running the lines, Peter Stuart as fourth official, and Steven McLean on VAR assisted by Gary Hilland. The margins, as always in this league, will be thin.
It feels like only yesterday that Danny Rohl’s Rangers wrapped up last season with a dead rubber against Falkirk. That side is gone. The squad has been ripped apart, the dressing room reshaped, the captain’s armband handed to a new figurehead.
Now comes the only judgment that matters.
At 8pm under the Tannadice lights, we find out whether this is the dawn of something real for Rangers and Derek McInnes – or just another false start dressed up as a new beginning.
