Rangers' Dominant Performance Against Celtic Under McInnes

Rangers’ Old Firm statement on Sunday was exactly the kind of performance many expected to see under Derek McInnes from the moment he walked through the door: organised, aggressive, and ruthless in the key moments.

On paper, the line-up hinted at a 4-4-2. It looked brave, maybe even reckless, against a Celtic side that usually swarms the middle of the pitch. You could almost script the criticism in advance: outnumbered, overrun, out-thought.

McInnes had other ideas.

This was no flat 4-4-2. Out of possession, James Penrice tucked inside, turning the shape into something far more compact, far more modern. He clogged up central areas, helped match Celtic’s numbers, and then, when Rangers had the ball, he drifted wide to underlap and overlap Djeidi Gassama. It was clever, detailed coaching – and it worked.

Behind them, the back three simply bullied Celtic’s forwards. They dominated the duels, read the game early, and reduced the visitors to a single shot on target – the sort of tame effort Ivor Pandur could have caught and casually tossed his hat on. Celtic never found rhythm, never found space, and never found any real belief that they could turn the tide.

At the heart of that defensive steel, Olwethu Makhanya stood out. He glided through the game with the assurance of a defender who knows he belongs at this level. Strong in the challenge, calm on the ball, quick across the ground – he has the look of a Rolls-Royce centre-back, and Scottish football rarely lets those types go unnoticed for long.

The platform behind allowed the midfield to shine. Penrice, having done the dirty work without the ball, matched it with energy and discipline when Rangers had it. Beside him, Nico Raskin showed exactly why he is in the Belgium squad. He snapped into tackles, recycled possession, and constantly offered himself as an option. This was international-class control in a ferocious domestic fixture.

Then there was Dan Neil.

Neil didn’t just keep Rangers ticking. He dictated the tempo, decided when to slow it, when to quicken it, when to play safe and when to punch a pass through the lines. His two goals were the obvious highlights, but they were really just the finishing touches on a complete midfield performance. He ran the game and Celtic never solved the problem.

Out wide, Gassama and Kim Min-su did a different kind of damage. They may not have delivered a stream of inch-perfect final balls, but their direct running kept Celtic’s full-backs pinned deep. Every time Rangers broke, the pair forced their markers to turn and sprint towards their own goal. That constant threat stopped Celtic from stepping out and squeezing the game, and it meant Rangers played large spells of the match on the front foot.

Up top, Kevin Kelsy set the tone. He passed up a very good chance early on, the sort that can linger in a striker’s mind, but he never hid. Instead, he battered away at the Celtic defence, linked cleverly with Ryan Naderi, and gave Rangers a focal point they could trust. One detail stood out: the way he repeatedly pinned Cameron Carter-Vickers, refusing to let the Celtic defender dictate the contest. When his goal finally came, it was taken with the confidence of a centre-forward who felt he had earned it.

McInnes called the display a “reference point” for his players. He is absolutely right. Performances like this set a standard. They give a dressing room something to measure itself against when the legs are heavy in February or when the pressure tightens in April.

Now comes the real test.

Rangers must go to Celtic Park on Sunday and find a way to do it again. The game will not resemble this one. The surroundings, the momentum, the demands – everything changes away from home in this fixture. But the requirement is brutally simple: they cannot afford to walk out eight points behind, not at this stage, not with the expectations that now follow a result like this.

What Sunday’s win has unquestionably delivered is belief. Five domestic victories on the spin, a cup semi-final on the horizon, and an Old Firm performance that finally looked like the fully formed version of McInnes’ vision.

Given where Rangers were after Jablonec, they would have grabbed this position with both hands.

The question now is whether this was a one-off surge, or the day a new Rangers side truly announced itself.