Rangers Star Reveals Tactical Secret Behind Celtic Rout: Is This A Lasting System?

Rangers Star Reveals Tactical Secret Behind Celtic Rout: Is This A Lasting System? Rangers’ 27-year-old defender James Penrice explained the thinking behind his Old Firm role after Sunday’s 3-0 Premier Sports Cup win at Ibrox. According to Rangers Review ’s report, Derek McInnes asked Penrice to move inside from left-back and track Benjamin Nygren closely, a plan the squad rehearsed for several days at Auchenhowie. Penrice said the job felt different from a normal central-midfield assignment because he often operated wider, while his previous experience in midfield at Livingston gave him comfort to accept the switch. It worked spectacularly. Dan Neil scored twice and earned the match award, Kevin Kelsy claimed his first Rangers goal, and the result stretched McInnes’ winning run to five domestic matches. Penrice now expects another tactical contest at Parkhead, where Rangers will again face a hostile home setting without travelling support. He said the squad feels united and intends to treat the return as another match to win. “Yeah, obviously with the gaffer, we’d spoken at length about the decision to go inside and play a different role, and I think it worked,” Penrice said, speaking at the launch of the Rangers Charity Foundation’s partnership with Down’s Syndrome Scotland. “I think as soon as you’ve seen the game kicked off, you’ve just seen me take off. “For me, you don’t need to convince me to play anywhere. I’ll play absolutely anywhere. I was buzzing just to get the opportunity to play in an Old Firm match, so I enjoyed it on Sunday. “To be fair, yes [I have played that role before]. I played centre-mid for Archie [Allan Archibald]. Archie is obviously at the club. And then at Livingston, I played maybe half a season at centre-mid. So, I can play centre-mid. It’s not one I’ve been playing. “But, I think you see on Sunday that it’s not just centre-mid. It was played kind of differently, kind of wider. I don’t want to give too much away. “That’s a dangerous question. I’ve never been asked to follow somebody around! That could get me in trouble. No, it was part of the plan. The gaffer came and spoke to me before the game. We worked on it; I think it worked to a tee. “You see after the game, a couple of the boys come up to me after the game talking about playing centre-mid now. I am just buzzing to get on the pitch at any point and I will play wherever.” “It probably surpassed [expectations],” Penrice said when asked if his Old Firm debut met his expectations. “It was the noise just coming in when we were running in from the warm-up was wild. But it comes down to it and you’ve got to perform, and it makes it all the better that we managed to walk away with a win. So, it was a very memorable Sunday. “From our players’ point of view, we don’t go there and worry about fans. We think the game will be different. I think you look at the game, they’ll probably change stuff, we’ll probably change stuff. “It’ll be a different game, but we’ll go there with the mindset that we’re going to win, and that’s what you need to do as a Rangers player. You need to go to these places and win. “I think the boys know that everyone will be sitting in their house watching. But at the same time, we go on the pitch and we’ve got a job to do, and that’s what happens when you play with Rangers. “Look, I think they’d have probably said the same coming on Sunday, try and get the fans turned, obviously keep it quiet. But we’ve got to use that to our advantage. We are going there to win, and as you said, we need to use anything we can to our advantage.” Can Rangers turn this tactical trick into a lasting system? GLASGOW, SCOTLAND – AUGUST 16: James Penrice of Rangers celebrates after he scores his team’s fourth goal during the Premier Sports Cup match between Rangers and St Mirren at Ibrox Stadium on August 16, 2026 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images) Rangers have earned plenty of credit for this win, and McInnes deserves it. Penrice shadowed Nygren, disrupted Celtic ’s midfield rhythm and gave his side extra numbers inside. That specific job helped Rangers seize control and explains why Neil found so much room to dictate play. Yet the tactic has a weakness. Man-marking one opponent can work brilliantly once, especially when the target never settles, but Celtic can change the picture next time. Aberdeen, Motherwell or a reshaped Celtic could stretch Rangers across the pitch, drag Penrice into unfamiliar zones and leave the centre-backs exposed. That would test whether McInnes has a second answer for McInnes. Rangers’ recent form adds another warning. Five straight domestic wins sound convincing, but several came by a single goal against sides from the lower half, including Motherwell and St Mirren. Those results show a team still leaning on discipline and defensive security rather than sustained control. That approach followed disappointing European exits, which have tightened the financial backdrop and left less room for squad depth. The bigger issue concerns workload. Asking a left-back to perform repeated midfield running, tracking and defensive cover can drain him across a long campaign. McInnes should keep the idea as a weapon, rather than make it the entire blueprint, while building clearer midfield rotations around Neil. Rangers cannot expect every opponent to hand Penrice the same problem to solve, and once teams start switching play quickly, the gaps may appear. For one afternoon, though, Celtic never found the answer.