Glasgow Rangers head into the first international break of the season after drawing all four of their first four matches in the Scottish Premiership.
It has not been an ideal start for the Ibrox giants or Russell Martin, who will have to wait until the middle of September, at least, before grabbing his first win in charge of the club.
There were some positives for the Gers in their 0-0 draw with Celtic, including the debut of Bojan Miovski as discussed in the clip above and a clean sheet, but there were also some worrying performances.
Thelo Aasgaard was selected to play in the number ten role for the Gers behind the Macedonia international, and failed to impress in an attacking sense.
Thelo Aasgaard's performance in numbers
The Norway international, who signed from Luton Town on a permanent deal this summer, was unable to offer a threat at the top end of the pitch, as he ended the game with zero shots on target and zero key passes, per Sofascore.
Aasgaard was also unreliable in possession, completing just 57% of his attempted passes, and Martin may not have been happy with how sloppy he was on the ball.
The former Wigan Athletic star was, however, a physical outlet for Rangers. He won nine duels, including eight of his 12 on the ground, and won two tackles without being dribbled past a single time.
Performance in Numbers
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Aasgaard put himself about and was up for the scrap defensively, which helped Rangers to avoid losing too many 50/50s, and was far from the worst performer for the Gers.
Martin's possible tactical mistake for Rangers against Celtic
One player who was even worse than Aasgaard against Celtic was left-sided attacker Mikey Moore, who was unable to cause Anthony Ralston many problems.
Ahead of the match, Ralston appeared to be the weak link in the Hoops defence due to the injury to first-choice Alistair Johnston. Despite that, Martin opted to move Djeidi Gassama over to the right flank to accommodate Moore on the left.
Gassama has scored four goals and provided one assist in nine appearances as a left winger for Rangers this season, which is why it seemed like he would be the most obvious option to take the game to Ralston and expose him on that side.
Minutes
72
Pass accuracy
44%
Shots on target
0
Key passes
0
Dribbles completed
1/3
Crosses completed
0/1
Duels won
4/9
As you can see in the table above, Moore did not take the game to the Scotland international and put in a disappointing all-round performance on the left flank, failing with 66.6% of his dribbles and completing just 44% of his passes.
That tactical decision also put Gassama out on the right, on his right foot, and meant that he struggled to take Kieran Tierney on down the outside in tight spaces, leaving Rangers too one-dimensional going forward.
In the end, the poor decisions in the wide areas heavily contributed to the team’s failure to create a single ‘big chance’ in the game, which left Miovski starved of service.
This is why Martin’s call to put Moore, who had an underwhelming afternoon, in on the left ahead of the usually electric Gassama was one that cost Rangers the win, as they were unable to take advantage of Johnston’s injury at right-back.
Whilst it is not a guarantee that Gassama would have won the game for Rangers, his statistics as a left-winger suggest that there was a good chance that he would have made a big impact and could have sealed all three points with a moment of magic.
