Nine points ahead of Celtic – Rangers have quickly turned things around under Danny Röhl

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Things are going well for Rangers at the moment. Although the Ibrox club aren’t top of the Scottish Premiership table, there is a growing sense that Rangers have some momentum behind them as we approach the final stretch of the league campaign. On Sunday Danny Röhl’s side picked up a pivotal 4-2 win over league leaders Hearts, coming from behind on two occasions to ultimately claim all three points and shorten the gap between the two clubs to just two points. And it didn’t come as a huge surprise to either group of fans.

“Big respect to my group, I think we showed today how big is the personality, how big is the character,” said Röhl at full-time. “Let’s not speak until the end of the season about the mentality of this group, because we have a lot of mentality. We fully deserved over 90 minutes to win, we gave them two presents today.” The result now means that Rangers have gone unbeaten in their last five games across all competitions and haven’t lost a league game since late December. And now four months into the job, the 36-year-old German tactician is beginning to show an impressive capacity to win games and guide Rangers back towards the top of Scottish football.

Indeed, after a shaky start in Glasgow that saw Röhl lose three of his first six games at the club, it seems as though the former Sheffield Wednesday boss has finally settled into his new role and is now undoubtedly thriving. In the league alone, the Rangers manager has won 14 games, drawn four and lost just one to date, averaging a very impressive 2.42 points per game in the process. Not only is that almost twice what his predecessor, Russell Martin, was averaging (1.14 points per game) but it’s also considerably better than any other manager in the Scottish top-flight in recent months. As we can see in the table above, which shows the form of all Premiership clubs since Röhl took over at Rangers in late October, Rangers have picked up more points than any other team in the Scottish top-flight. Which works out at nine more than cross-city rivals Celtic and 11 more than league leaders Hearts.

Of course, that’s not to say that Röhl is now on the straight and narrow at Ibrox. While the Rangers manager is certainly doing a good job, such impressive form will mean very little if the club can’t ultimately catch Hearts and claim top spot. Equally, with at least three more Old Firm derbies against Celtic – two in the league and a showdown in the Scottish Cup quarter-finals – yet to play out between now and the end of the season, it means Röhl will have to be at his absolute best to navigate a tricky end to the footballing calendar. As all Rangers and Celtic managers learn very quickly, first place means everything in Scotland. And, in stark contrast, second means nothing at all.