Same start but different outlook at Rangers as McInnes era begins

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Highlights: Dundee Utd 1-1 Rangers

A year ago, Russell Martin tore strips off his Rangers team after an opening day draw at Motherwell.

Two managers and plenty of disappointment later, it was the same result but a different tone at Dundee United as the Derek McInnes era started in underwhelming fashion.

The former Aberdeen, Kilmarnock and Hearts boss stressed the need for time and for further additions as he guides the Ibrox outfit through a summer of transition.

"It's one game," he told Sky Sports following a 1-1 draw on Friday. "I'm not really interested in what's happened previously, but from my point of view, we are going to get better as we go along."

Having gone behind to Lachlan Rose's first-half effort, Rangers improved after the break and equalised through Thelo Aasgaard, but failed to capitalise and were fortunate not to concede late on when Jesse Randall dinked a tame effort straight at debutant goalkeeper Ivor Pandur.

"It's disappointing - we've dropped a couple of points, but we weren't good enough to get all three," McInnes added.

"We've got to have more trust in what we're doing, keep our shoulder to the wheel and do simple things better."

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Former Rangers striker Steven Thompson agreed with McInnes that there is no need to panic.

"At this point in the season, there's no knee-jerk [reaction] or anything here.

"It's not what McInnes wants, but it's the first game of the season. There will be time to judge once he gets the players he wants and once he gets more work done on the training ground.

"He will have learned a lot from his players tonight."

On a night where Pandur, centre-back Ben Godfrey and former Hearts duo Cammy Devlin and Lawrence Shankland all made their debuts from the start, it was a glimpse into what this new-look Rangers side might look like under McInnes.

Summer signings Dan Neil and Ross McCrorie also came on as substitutes and McInnes made it clear there will be further additions in the weeks to come.

However, former Rangers man Andy Halliday saw what he believes to have been flaws in McInnes' tactical set-up.

"No matter how many defenders you play with, the main fundamental is being compact, and I thought Rangers were the furthest thing from compact," he said on Sportsound.

"All the best individuals, other than Thelo Aasgaard, were Dundee United players.

"Rangers are a work in progress, I think they'll still make additions to try and improve, but it certainly wasn't the start they were looking for."

Image source, SNSWith Godfrey going off with a hamstring complaint and uncertainty over whether new signing Olwethu Makhanya will receive a visa for Thursday's trip to Jagiellonia Bialystok in Europa League qualifying, Rangers are after defensive recruits, but it is in wide areas that McInnes is most keen to strengthen.

Djeidi Gassama started on the left at Tannadice but was hooked at half-time, and Rangers finished with Mohamed Diomande and Aasgaard playing narrow.

"I thought second half as the game got stretched, we had opportunities to play in the spaces and we need people with the ability to go past [defenders]," McInnes told Sky.

"We still would like a winger to go get at people, make a difference and get people on the back foot.

"We never quite had that and we're working hard to bring those types of players to the club. Our strikers are all dependant on service. We're working hard and we know what we want."

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