When it was put to Danny Rohl, following a 2-0 defeat against Roma in November, that his team looked small in stature compared to the Italians, he let out a wry smile and offered no rebuke: “When I saw the Roma team on the pitch, you see the physicality, how strong they are.”
Just like during that fateful 6-0 Club Brugge defeat, a night when Ally McCoist memorably branded Rangers a team of “wee boys”, the gap in stature was somewhat alarming against Gian Piero Gasperini's men a few months ago. In a game where Rangers’ only hopes of getting a result were to scrap and scrounge, their approach was in vain.
Not anymore, though.
Using very basic metrics in both of those aforementioned games, fewer than 50 per cent of the Rangers team stood at six feet or over. Against Hearts a fortnight ago, only Mikey Moore and Nico Raskin registered under that height - both dogged competitors despite their small stature. You sense it will be a similar story tomorrow when Celtic visit Ibrox.
Looking at the pitch pre-match during the win over Hearts, it was noticeable that Dujon Sterling, one of Rangers’ bigger players in recent years, appeared one of Rohl’s smaller starters. Against Derek McInnes’ team, who have often overpowered opponents throughout the season, Rangers offered the league leaders a taste of their own medicine.
Rohl's team looked physically imposing against Hearts (Image: Jane Barlow)
Of course, height does not always equate to a player being more physically imposing. Raskin’s aerial threat is one of many examples that show a player is not defined by their size. Plus, different managers favour different types of physicality (for example, Thelo Aasgaard is imposing in height and stature but cannot cover ground like Mo Diomande).
Especially since the January window, however, there has been a conscious, concerted effort to improve the physical floor of the Rangers team in general terms. That, alongside Rohl’s stylistic fit and some of the work done last summer, has resulted in the Ibrox club no longer appearing a team opponents can obviously overpower. Instead, that size is becoming a weapon to utilise at set pieces and in open play.
Sources have always maintained that, with no multi-club ownership model existing between Leeds and Rangers, the relationship extends only as far as the sharing of information and mutual investors.
Paraag Marathe’s resignation from the Ibrox board on Friday - news broken exclusively by the Rangers Review and motivated by UEFA regulations that could be broken if Leeds and Rangers both reached the Europa League next season - is a reminder of how the two outfits are linked, though.
49ers technical director Gretar Steinsson has a big influence in the background at both clubs in what is described as collective recruitment processes, without an overarching sporting director in either set-up. Steinsson is known to highly favour the importance of physicality within recruitment, and at Leeds and Rangers this season, that rings true.
Six of Leeds United’s 10 summer recruits were 6ft 1in or taller and they have proven a fascinating team to watch develop this season.
49ers Enterprises Technical Director Gretar Steinsson is a key player in transfers at Leeds and Rangers (Image: Stuart Wallace / Shutterstock)
The recruitment premium placed on players with a high physical floor - such as Djeidi Gassama and Youssef Chermiti - owes in part to a belief that while clubs can attempt to place a player’s technical level from one league to another, it is easier to scale their physical output and potential, which is so valuable in the current football landscape.
Leeds epitomise how football has changed in the Premier League in many ways. In 2024, when Russell Martin led Southampton to the Premier League, he spent an ill-fated spell in the top flight explaining why he would not compromise on the style that saw the Saints reach the play-offs. But alongside Ipswich and Leicester City, teams also promoted with an expansive, possession-based system, they were relegated convincingly.
Football has changed plenty in that intervening period. Especially at the elite end, the game is dictated by duels, power and speed, as the value placed on possession has decreased across the board. Sunderland, Leeds and Burnley, the promoted clubs last season, have all tried to stay in the league using attritional means - not by playing attractive football.
There was plenty of pressure on Leeds boss Daniel Farke this summer given he has twice been relegated from the top flight with Norwich. Would he be able to adapt and compromise?
For a period, Farke appeared doomed in trying to continue implementing the progressive football that earned promotion in his favoured 4-3-3. A tactical switch in a game with Manchester City, that saw Leeds so nearly recover to earn a point in a 3-2 defeat, changed things. Unlike Martin, who compromised only by the time it was too late at Rangers this season, pragmatism saved Farke.
Leeds United manager Daniel Farke has changed his tactical style this season (Image: Danny Lawson)
Moving to a 3-5-2, playing direct and favouring height and physicality, Leeds have also proven to be one of the best set-piece teams in the world’s most competitive division this season. There are many parallels with the recovery jobs at both Elland Road and Ibrox in shifting to pragmatism and physicality - the obvious difference being that only one club needed to change their manager to do so.
Undeniably, there has been a change in football’s tactical trends. Arsenal are probably the best team in the world and, compared to three seasons ago, Mikel Arteta’s side no longer connotes free-flowing football but size, set-pieces and power.
The ramifications within Scottish football are up for debate. Rangers, unquestionably, still require more of an on-ball identity to dominate long-term. Motherwell and Falkirk, meanwhile, have proven refreshing success stories in the league with their own expansive football.
However, some sources have told the Rangers Review that, compared to the domestic landscape five or six years ago, there's a belief Rohl will face more open matches as teams press Rangers instead of sitting in low blocks. Dundee’s recent approach at Ibrox is one such example. Routinely, the German manager has mentioned that teams will try to impose their game on his team, instead of simply defending and reacting.
In the summer transfer window, there was a conscious attempt to upsize Rangers. Youssef Chermiti, Manny Fernandez and Aasgaard all fit that remit. However, Martin’s team were anything but physically imposing, both in selection and tactical terms.
An ongoing internal debate last summer weighed up the merits of appointing a philosophy manager - seen at the time as a requirement to provide Rangers with on-ball identity - or a ‘Red Bull’ coach like Rohl, focused instead on verticality and pressing.
Stylistically and culturally, the Germans’ adaptive, pragmatic approach has proven far more fertile at Ibrox. And in January, within that wider recruitment committee consisting of Dan Purdy, technical director, Stig Inge Bjørnebye, football consultant, Steinsson and Rohl, there developed a clear and united effort to favour physicality, speed and power.
Following football trends, ensuring suitability to Rohl’s developing style and in the belief it can scale up to help Rangers compete in Europe.
Naderi joined Rangers in the January window - and is no shrinking violet (Image: Robert Perry)
Tuur Rommens, Tochi Chukwuani, Ryan Naderi and Andreas Skov Olsen all fit into that category.
As mentioned earlier, physicality is not a one-size-fits-all term. Rangers have data systems that allow them to score individuals physically - a common factor in modern recruitment - but such output is far from merely based on height; deceleration, turning circles, top speeds and sprint distances are all considerations in a player’s ‘physical’ profile.
An individual like Chukwuani, for example, does not cover ground as quickly as Diomande but is perhaps, on the eye, a more obvious midfield disruptor with presence in the middle of the park. A different profile to what Rohl had available before the window.
Rangers have used a data model in past windows to combine technical and physical data that helped them to rank signings like Hamza Igamane and Jefte, both players who arrived from relatively unknown markets and left for significant profits.
We have been here before, speaking generally. There are some parallels to the summer window of 2021, when Steven Gerrard and Ross Wilson agreed that the previous season’s European exit owed in large part to facing superior physical teams. John Lundstram arrived to address that on the road to Seville in the centre of midfield and the rest was so nearly history that campaign.
Rohl’s football is by no means the finished article yet. There is recognition that more of an identity is required on the ball, existing alongside an appreciation for the fact that, mid-season, in a high-pressure scenario, the German has found a way to “just win”, get results and add tactical layers impressively.
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Whatever the final version of his idea on the pitch evolves to next season, it will not deviate from the physical emphasis placed on recruitment in recent months, and that will continue to shape the tactical approach.
Whether visible in Rangers’ excellent set-piece output, their increasing attempts for quick vertical attacks or a willingness to play long and direct, their shift from possession play to physical preferences within the same season is stark - and part of a wider football trend.