Dan Neil “more time” factor details issue that McInnes must fix

In his preview of Saturday’s Premier Sports semi-final against Aberdeen, Rangers’ Dan Neil reflected on the midweek performance against Hearts which yielded a draw.

In the circumstances, a point was acceptable but the performance wasn’t.

Hearts ran most of the game, even if they didn’t do enough with the ball or punish Rangers, as reflected in the stats.

Having taken the lead, the Gers should have capitalised, but they shrunk. The first half was a scrappy affair, leading to Hearts equalising then securing a second. Only a late rally saved the day for the visitors.

We can’t have the same at Hampden for Rangers vs Aberdeen.

The urgency, purpose, and aggression needs to be much better. The team can’t have 5/6 players off form, like in Gorgie.

However, Neil’s remarks underline a crucial issue that Derek McInnes needs to fix.

This is a young team that is still working toward consistency and maintaining standards, but sometimes they can be caught between a fast, direct style and playing through the thirds.

More time on the ball than we thought – Dan Neil

This was apparent when Neil spoke ahead of his first outing at the national stadium.

“The game on Wednesday night, I thought the performance wasn’t perfect, he said.

“The first half wasn’t good enough at all. That word control, we didn’t have enough until we went 2-1 down, to be honest. Then we started playing through the thirds a bit better.

“It’s probably a psychological thing. It was at Tynecastle and a lot was made of the game. Maybe we actually had more time on the ball than we thought.

“We could have played our football and when we went 2-1 down, we did that, but we have to do that at the start of the game. These are all things we’ve talked about as a squad and things we can improve on as the season goes on.”

With decisions to be made for Derek McInnes, he needs to use the change of focus away from league duty to lift the performance.

The players must give a better account of themselves on Saturday evening to seize the opportunity of booking a place in the first domestic final of the season.