Emmanuel Fernandez: A Modern Defender's Dilemma at Rangers

Emmanuel Fernandez walked into Ibrox last season and immediately looked the part. Tall, elegant, unflustered on the ball, he glided through games like a centre-half who had been there for years, not months. He won his battles, stepped out with composure and carried a threat at set-plays. A modern defender in a very old‑school environment.

But there was always that other side. The risk. The little lapse. The Cruyff turn where a clearance would do. The extra touch that invited trouble. And under Derek McInnes, that is a habit that will not be indulged for long.

Fernandez on a tightrope

Record Sport’s Scott McDermott has already nailed the dilemma. Fernandez can look like a Rolls Royce in royal blue, but a couple of Cruyff turns in the wrong area and he’ll be on a collision course with a manager who built his playing career on reliability, not romance.

McInnes wants his centre-backs to dominate both boxes, yes, but first and foremost he wants them to defend. Fernandez offers height, aggression and calm distribution, but the new boss will demand that the lapses are stripped out of his game. Under McInnes, those moments aren’t quirks. They’re liabilities.

And with Atalanta loanee Ben Godfrey expected to line up alongside him at Tannadice, the standard at the heart of this revamped Rangers backline has just gone up another notch.

A squad still under construction

For all the traffic through the front door this summer, this Rangers squad still looks light in key areas. The midfield has been flooded – “seemingly a million midfielders” is only half a joke – yet the creative X-factor remains elusive.

Thelo Aasgaard’s shoulder scare in the final friendly against West Ham underlined just how fragile the wide options are. He has shaken that off and should start on one flank tonight, with Djeidi Gassama on the other, but the search for wingers continues. Behind them, there’s still no obvious back-up for Tuur Rommens at full-back.

Scottish clubs know this feeling too well. European qualifiers arrive early, the money they bring is vital, and the pressure to have a fully tuned squad by July is relentless. Recruitment has to be lightning fast the moment the window opens, while coaches are still trying to work out who fits where.

Across the continent, clubs in the Big Five leagues are boarding planes for gentle pre-season tours, in no rush to move for a Nico Raskin type. They can wait, watch, then pounce. Rangers, like the rest of Scotland, don’t have that luxury.

That reality also shapes the Mikey Moore situation. Tottenham have no reason to rush him back to Govan. They’ll want to see him in pre-season, weigh up their own needs, maybe even line up another big-money wide signing like Savinho before they even think about a loan return. Them’s the breaks.

McInnes’ uncomfortable truth

What McInnes can control is mentality. As a player, he won just about everything there was to win at Ibrox during the 1990s, when Rangers collected trophies with a ruthless regularity. He wants that edge back. That sense that second best is a crisis, not a shrug.

So he has told this squad, plainly, that they should feel “uncomfortable”. Comfortable players don’t change. Comfortable players don’t chase down lost causes in the 93rd minute on a cold Wednesday. If it means some noses are put out of joint, so be it. That’s the point.

It’s also why he will be grateful to be on the touchline at all tonight. His four-game SFA ban for comments made as Hearts boss is under appeal, allowing him to take charge at Tannadice. Nick Walsh has the whistle, with Calum Spence and Jonathan Bell on the lines, Peter Stuart as fourth official and Steven McLean on VAR, assisted by Gary Hilland. McInnes will need to keep a lid on his emotions. His team can’t afford to lose him to the stand again.

New captain, new spine, same question

The last time Rangers opened a league campaign, the script felt eerily familiar: new manager, raft of signings, a sense of cautious optimism and an away day that looked tricky but manageable. Russell Martin’s first league game ended in a flat draw at Motherwell against his former team-mate Jens Berthel Askou, whose side were supposedly in flux. The hindsight isn’t kind.

Now the club stands at a similar crossroads. Danny Rohl’s reign fizzled out with a dead rubber against Falkirk. The squad has been ripped up since, with eight new faces through the door and Derek McInnes now in the hot seat. This time, Dundee United provide the opening test.

Lawrence Shankland, freshly installed as captain, leads the team out at Tannadice. The £6m man Ivor Pandur takes over from Jack Butland in goal, preferred to Liam Kelly. Dujon Sterling and Rommens bring some continuity at full-back, while Godfrey and Fernandez form the new-look central pairing charged with giving Pandur a quieter debut.

In front of them, Dan Neil and Cammy Devlin are set to anchor the midfield. Both arrive with reputations for energy and bite – Neil from Sunderland, Devlin from Hearts – and both know that early impressions in this environment linger.

Further forward, Aasgaard’s decision to cut short his post-World Cup holiday to fight for a place has impressed those inside the club. With the wide recruitment drive still incomplete, he is likely to be rewarded with a start on the left, with Mohamed Diomande an option on the right.

Then comes the big tactical call: how to fit Shankland and Youssef Chermiti into the same XI. All signs point to a front two, with Shankland dropping slightly deeper, operating between the lines and linking play while Chermiti stretches defences.

Naderi waiting in the wings

That leaves Ryan Naderi watching, but far from forgotten. The German striker, signed for a sizeable fee from Hansa Rostock in January, looked a shrewd piece of business before injury cut short his first months in a Rangers shirt.

When fit, he offered more than goals. His height made him a menace in both boxes, and his work-rate up top – harrying defenders, chasing hopeless balls, leading the press – drew comparisons with Kenny Miller in the way he once dovetailed with Kris Boyd.

Tonight, Naderi starts behind Shankland and Chermiti in the pecking order, but he knows this fixture. He scored against Dundee United last season and will be desperate to influence the game again if called from the bench.

New signings Olwethu Makhanya, Ross McCrorie, Vanja Dragojevic and Neil all wait among the substitutes, hoping for their first competitive minutes in Light Blue. The South African defender Makhanya, signed from Philadelphia Union, may have to be patient with Godfrey and Fernandez ahead of him, but his time will come in a season that will test the depth of this rebuilt squad.

A dawn, or another false start?

So here Rangers stand again, on the brink of a new campaign, the sense of déjà vu impossible to ignore. A new manager, a new captain, a new spine. Fresh hope, but scars that haven’t fully healed.

Kick-off at Tannadice is at 8pm. By full-time, we’ll know a little more about McInnes’ Rangers. Not just whether they can win on opening night, but whether Emmanuel Fernandez and the rest can walk that fine line between composure and carelessness without tipping over it.

Is this the dawn of something different, or just another false start dressed up in new colours? The answer starts tonight.