Rangers flip narrative as Derek McInnes makes mark

"I like putting my name to this team at the minute," Rangers manager Derek McInnes said after a second Old Firm derby win in a week.

That is hardly surprising, given the Rangers side that won 1-0 at Celtic Park in the league after last Sunday's 3-0 win at Ibrox in the League Cup is starting to look like a team built in McInnes' image.

A sluggish start to the campaign resulted in humiliating exits from the Europa League and Conference League and raised alarm bells among Rangers fans as they fell off the pace set by Celtic. The team looked completely lost.

Now, it is showing the hallmarks of its manager as they clinched a sixth straight victory and back-to-back derby triumphs to narrow the gap to Celtic to two points.

"Take it back a month when Derek McInnes was under real pressure," former Rangers midfielder Andy Halliday said on BBC Scotland's Sportsound.

"A big thing that was quite confusing to people is: 'it doesn't look like a Derek McInnes team'. They don't look organised off the ball, they don't look aggressive, they don't look athletic.

"How that narrative has completely changed over the last three, four weeks. That for me is a Derek McInnes team, what we watched today.

"Front foot, aggressive, making contact with people, when they win the ball back playing forward, running forward and putting Celtic under constant pressure for large parts of the game."

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McInnes conceded he is still "embarrassed" by the European exits against Jagiellonia Bialystok and Jablonec and said the criticism was hard to respond to earlier in the season.

But he has shown over 800 games as a manager that he can organise and motivate a team to be difficult to beat off the ball.

His Hearts side which went so close to winning the league last season conceded the fewest of any team in the Premiership. Rangers have conceded just once now in their last six games, having kept just one clean sheet in their first seven this season.

Dujon Sterling, playing in his best position of right-back, has formed a physically imposing unit with Emmanuel Fernandez and Olwethu Makhanya inside him.

That trio's defensive solidity allows James Penrice to maraud forward from left-back and help Rangers add numbers to their midfield.

Fernandez still has lapses in concentration. He was lucky not to be sent off at Celtic Park after an early booking for hauling down Camilo Duran was followed up by a dodgy challenge on Benjamin Nygren which went unpunished.

But once he settled, he repelled everything that came into Rangers' box, making 11 clearances. Makhanya next to him brings calm authority and was named man-of-the-match. Celtic were restricted to one shot on target at home.

In front of them, Dan Neil and Nico Raskin have stepped up in midfield. The pair made the most passes in Rangers' ranks, always showing for the ball and getting stuck in.

Rangers made 75 fewer passes than Celtic overall, but 50 more than their rivals in the opposition's half. While Celtic's passes were often between centre-backs, Neil and Raskin found each other and players in more advanced areas.

"My midfield were terrific again," McInnes said. "Celtic filled the midfield. We filled it with even more bodies, we just made sure we weren't going to get overrun in there.

"We look far more calm, far more settled in everything that we're doing. The players deserve so much credit for that."

When captain Lawrence Shankland pulled a hamstring against Motherwell having just started scoring regularly, it only raised concerns around Rangers.

Could Naderi and new £9m signing Kevin Kelsy fill the void? The former failed to wholly convince last season after a January switch from German third-tier side Hansa Rostock.

Now, he has four goals in 13 games, more than he managed in the second half of last season. His goal at Celtic Park was what Rangers will want more of.

Lurking to pounce when Kim Min-su's shot was parried out to him, he got his knee over the ball and finished smartly. But aside from his goal the 23-year-old German helped set the tone.

He was involved in an astonishing 34 duels, 18 of them in the air. He won 11 of them and worked so hard he was still panting for breath in his post-match interview.

To add to his physical presence, he had the most shots and touches in the Celtic box.

"His all round play was really, really good," former Rangers striker Kris Boyd said on Sky Sports. "Him and [Kevin] Kelsy didn't have much link up play but they were working together. If one went short, one went long.

"Naderi's running power was really key for Rangers. When he came in at first there was a rawness about him. But there is a lot to like.

"If Derek can get a hold of him and work with him and make him that complete striker, because he works his socks off and he can finish."

McInnes knows given the record investment in this Rangers squad, these sort of performances and results will be expected every week, especially without the burden of European football.

At an average age of 24, though, Rangers have one of the youngest groups in the league, and being shorn of their experienced captain Shankland only adds to that sense of rawness.

Former Rangers winger Peter Lovenkrands said on BBC Radio Scotland that the team will take "so much confidence" from beating their rivals twice in a row.

McInnes agrees this has to be the starting point, but becoming the first Rangers manager since Graeme Souness to win his first two derbies gives him a strong platform.

"There's a lot of growth in the team," the Rangers boss said. "And winning in places like this only helps. But there's plenty of league games to be won and we have to concentrate on that.

"It was hard to defend the criticism [at the start of the season]. We're on a strong run now, six wins in a row, which is the kind of consistency we're searching for.

"But at the start we didn't look ready, for whatever reason, we didn't look settled as a team, didn't carry an attacking threat.

"But we've knuckled down and worked hard, and hopefully that winning habit is something we can keep working towards."