Ahead of his second Ibrox debut last week, new Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst promised the home crowd that they could expect to see something a little different when Sparta Prague came to town.
“You will see a team tomorrow in a system I like to play and how I feel is best to play against Prague,” Steven Gerrard’s successor told the Glasgow Times.
“You will definitely see some changes.”
Van Bronckhorst was certainly good to his word.
Securing their place in the Europa League knock-out stages thanks to two goals from Alfredo Morelos, Gio’s Rangers looked like a different beast entirely; snarling and ravenous, tearing into Prague with the sort of ferocity that had been absent during a tepid end to the Gerrard era.
And perhaps the biggest difference between Van Bronckhorst’s Rangers and Gerrard’s iteration can be summed best up by Aribo’s performance against the Czech giants.
Is Joe Aribo leaving Rangers for the Premier League?
Yes, the Nigeria international missed a host of opportunities on Thursday night, striking the bar early on before squandering a close-range sitter later in the half, but the fact that so many chances were coming his way highlighted the freedom afforded to Aribo by the former Feyenoord boss.
In a matter of days, Van Bronckhorst has released the shackles around the ankles of Rangers’ midfield three.
In Sunday’s 3-1 win at Livingston, Aribo did find the net, curling home a stunning shot shortly after fellow midfielder Scott Arfield opened the scoring.
A player who scored just two goals in his final 29 games under Gerrard has one in two under the new manager; And it should have been a whole lot more.
With The Mail reporting that Aribo is facing an uncertain future at Ibrox – Premier League trio Crystal Palace, Brentford and Watford are eyeing up a man with less than two years left on his contract – it would feel like a real shame if Rangers fans were denied the chance to see how far Aribo can go under Van Bronckhorst.
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