Ibrox side Glasgow Rangers beat St Mirren at the weekend.
Steven Gerrard has admitted to Rangers’ official website that his diamond formation didn’t work in Saturday’s 4-0 drubbing of St Mirren.
Rangers were only leading 1-0 at half-time when Gerrard switched up his formation to a 4-4-2 system, with Jermain Defoe and Alfredo Morelos the focal points of a two-pronged attack.
From there, the Gers went on to score three more goals and looked a lot more convincing in the final third.
In the first half, Gerrard employed the same system which resulted in them losing at Kilmarnock last month, and the 38-year-old acknowledges that it didn’t bear much fruit against St Mirren at Ibrox.
“I don’t think the diamond worked again at the weekend but I don’t think any system is going to work if you don’t have that intensity or aggression in your play,” he told the club’s official website.
“I felt when we went to a four-four-two in the second-half at the weekend we looked a lot better, we had a bit more balance and Ryan Kent certainly looked more dangerous out on the left.
“You learn all the time with players individually and collectively but certainly having Jermain around does give us more of a threat and gives us the chance to play two forwards on the pitch, which is what we’re going to need at times.”
Gerrard’s willingness to experiment is a huge plus. Some managers would staunchly stick by a certain formation in the belief – or hope – that it will click eventually, but the Rangers boss clearly has no qualms about switching things up if it benefits the team.
The light Blues, who sit six points behind top-of-the-Premiership Celtic in second, visit Aberdeen on Wednesday and it’ll be interesting to see what formation Gerrard goes with.
It was a 4-3-3 which comprehensively beat the Hoops in December, even though the score was only 1-0, so perhaps he needs to get back to that.
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