- Celtic repeatedly exploited the space between Rangers duo James Tavernier and Oliver Antman with underlapping runs and deep movement.
- Rangers’ aggressive high press collapsed physically and structurally after a strong opening 25 minutes.
- Danny Rohl’s delayed tactical adjustments allowed Celtic to dominate transitions and kill the game early second half.
Rangers’ latest defeat, this time to Celtic followed a now familiar pattern under Danny Rohl.
For 25 minutes, the structure looked aggressive, organised and capable of unsettling Celtic.
Then the game shifted, Rangers lost control territorially and structurally, and once momentum swung there was little sign they could recover it.
The most concerning aspect was not simply that Celtic improved, but how clearly, they identified and attacked Rangers’ weakest area.
The right-hand side occupied by James Tavernier and Oliver Antman.
Antman was making his first start since November after an underwhelming season disrupted rhythm and confidence, while Tavernier, now well into the final stages of his Ibrox career, again struggled once repeated transitional actions began to stretch the game.
Celtic recognised that vulnerability quickly and systematically targeted it throughout the second half with Martin O’Neill making crucial tactical changes as the interval.
Rangers press worked early, but only briefly
For the opening phase, Rangers pressed with real aggression.
The structure resembled the second-half approach from the New Year derby, where Rangers attempted to engage Celtic higher and disrupt build-up before they could establish rhythm.
The front-line pressed man-for-man aggressively, midfield distances were compact, and Rangers forced several rushed Celtic possessions.
They also found the early goal their performance deserved when Mikey Moore latched onto a deflected Youssef Chermiti shot to tap home.
But the issue was sustainability.
Celtic equalised after a Luke McCowan pass broke the Gers line, with Yang Hyun-jun levelling despite a contentious offside call.
The issue of fitness once again bore it’s head towards the end of the first-half.
High pressing against Celtic requires enormous physical and positional discipline.
Once the intensity drops even marginally, the distances between units begin to expand and Celtic become exceptionally difficult to contain because of the rotations they use between midfield and wide areas.
That is exactly what happened, especially after half-time.
Celtic began attacking space rather than shape
The key tactical adjustment from Celtic was that they stopped engaging Rangers directly and instead began attacking the spaces Rangers left behind the press.
McCowan was axed, with a more natural winger in Sebastian Tounekti introduced on the right flank.
Much of the movement looked heavily influenced by principles associated with former Hoops boss Ange Postecoglou’s side.
There was constant occupation of depth, underlapping full-backs, and aggressive movement into central scoring zones.
Tactics Rangers have notoriously failed to deal with over the past four seasons.
Rather than simply holding width, Celtic repeatedly created overloads and blindside runs around Tavernier and Antman.
Three patterns became especially damaging.
Runs behind from deep
One of the biggest problems for Rangers was runners arriving from deeper positions into spaces Antman failed to track consistently.
Celtic’s midfielders timed movements beyond Rangers’ midfield line superbly, particularly once Rangers’ press lost cohesion.
Because Tavernier was often occupied by the initial wide threat, the deeper runner became extremely difficult to pick up. That created hesitation between the right-back and right centre-back:
Does Tavernier track inside? Does the centre-back step wider? Does Antman recover?
Too often the answer was nobody reacting quickly enough.
And that answer has been all to prevalent in recent weeks for Rohl.
Celtic repeatedly attacked the channel between full-back and centre-back, forcing Rangers into emergency defending rather than controlled defensive positioning.
Underlapping full-backs caused havoc
Celtic’s underlapping movements were particularly effective because Rangers’ defensive structure naturally expected overlap patterns.
Instead of simply going around the outside, Celtic’s full-backs and interior midfielders moved inside Tavernier, dragging Rangers centrally and creating confusion over marking responsibilities.
Arne Engels and Benjamin Nygren consistently found pockets inside Rangers’ midfield shape because Rangers’ wingers were slow recovering into compact positions.
That created a recurring issue with Tavernier becoming isolated 2v1, Antman being caught between pressing and tracking which meant Nasser Djiga was dragged too wide
Once that happened, central spaces opened everywhere else.
Celtic filled the posts as Rangers collapsed
One of the clearest differences between the sides in the second half was penalty-box occupation.
Celtic attacked the box with purpose and structure.
When crosses entered wide areas, they consistently filled the box.
That stretched Rangers’ defensive line horizontally and created panic defending.
Daizen Maeda in particular was devastating because he attacked spaces before Rangers reacted to them.
Rangers were constantly responding to movement rather than anticipating it.
This led to the Japan forward netting twice in a matter of minutes to seal the win for the hosts.
Rangers became defensively stretched against Celtic
As Celtic increased tempo, Rangers’ spacing deteriorated badly.
The gaps between full-back and centre-back became enormous, especially on the right side. Tavernier no longer had the recovery pace to consistently defend those transitions, while Antman’s lack of chemistry and defensive understanding with him became increasingly obvious.
That relationship looked completely undeveloped.
There were multiple moments where both pressed the same player and neither tracked the inside runner.
Against a side with Celtic’s movement and speed, those small disconnects become fatal very quickly, despite the current Parkhead side’s lack of overall quality.
Danny Rohl’s delayed changes repeated a familiar movie
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect for Rangers supporters was how familiar the collapse felt.
The warning signs appeared early in the second half, yet the tactical adjustments arrived far too late, similar to the defeat against Hearts earlier in the week.
By the time Rohl made changes, Celtic already had territorial dominance, control of transitions and complete momentum at 3-1.
The issue was not simply personnel. Rangers needed structural help on that flank far earlier such as d deeper winger or a reduced pressing height
A more compact midfield distances could have also offered greater protection for Tavernier, such as the tactic operated by Steven Gerrard where Ryan Jack protected the attacking captain.
None came quickly enough.
Instead, Rangers continued trying to play an aggressive game without the physical capacity or defensive stability to sustain it.
Dujon Sterling and Djiedi Gassama were introduced for the faltering pair, but the game was already gone.
Read Rangers analysis
This match again highlighted a growing long-term issue for Rangers.
Tavernier remains technically valuable and still contributes in possession, but physically he increasingly struggles in open transitional games against elite athletic opposition.
This is why his time at Ibrox is over, with the 34-year-old’s departure already announced.
When paired with a winger lacking defensive sharpness and match rhythm, that weakness becomes even easier to isolate.
Celtic identified it immediately and built their second-half dominance around it.
Rohl’s Rangers can clearly execute an aggressive pressing plan in short bursts.
The problem is they currently lack either the athleticism, the squad balance, or the in-game adaptability to sustain it over 90 minutes against top-level opposition.
Until that changes, these collapses will continue to repeat themselves in the biggest matches.
