"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." Naderi goal gives Rangers second derby win over Celtic in week Scott Brown & Andy Halliday discuss Old Firm game on YouTube All the Rangers reaction & have your say 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.
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