Filip Helander - The Last Five
Steven Gerrard was quick to improve Rangers' defence last season going from a backline that conceded 50 league goals in 17/18 to just 27 in 18/19. Gerrard spent over £4m bringing in CB pairing Connor Goldson & Nikola Katic whilst adding Joe Worrall on a season-long loan deal & Gareth McCauley on a one year contract.
McCauley & Worrall have departed with George Edmundson arriving from Oldham for around £700,000. Now Gerrard has made his record signing with Swedish international Filip Helander joining on a four-year deal from Bologna for a transfer fee that's rumoured to reach around £5m.
Rangers haven't had a superb left-footed centre back for a while now. I watched Helander's last five games to see if he provides a solution to the long term problem.
Opponents - Sassuolo(H), Juventus(H), Roma(A), Frosinone(H) & SPAL(A).
A lack of control of games is a coach's nightmare. The 'you attack we attack' back and forth. Turning Football into Basketball.
Recently, Brendan Rodgers & Steve Clarke have been shining lights in how to control games in Scotland. By controlling the space, you control the game. Having the round thing helps but it isn't essential. The opponent plays where you want them to, not where they want to.
So how will Rangers try to control games? when their opponents have the ball Rangers will aspire to be narrow and compact. Nothing comes through the middle. Nothing breaks the lines. You'll notice Rangers' wingers pressing from in to out. Clog up the middle of the pitch making the opposition go wide. Once it goes wide, the FB is pressed and will likely shell it into the channel. I know it's a ramble but I'm getting there.
I believe the addition of Filip Helander will help Rangers dominate the space, playing large portions of games in the oppositions defensive third. Helander is so aggressive with his positioning that it's impossible that Rangers don't create waves and waves of attack. He drags the defensive line so high that every outfield player can be in one half. If your centre back is winning the second ball deep in the opposition's half, your opponents will struggle to get out.
A coach would likely call it 'counter-press'. Effectively, when we have the ball how can we be in a position to stop any transition should we lose it? The next attack is ours mentality. Helander's natural game is a 1v1 game. A man marking attitude, Helander will follow and press the striker no matter how short he goes for the ball. Helander and the adjustments his teammates will make to his game will have Rangers playing a lot higher up the pitch more often. Here's a video looking at how high he positions himself and where he likes to win the ball back.
For someone so aggressive, he defends his own box extremely calmly. He's not hugely athletic, not incredibly fast or built like the side of a house, he just seems very efficient. He very rarely went to ground, covered his full-back well and even in wide areas he is without panic. Around his own box, he seems to take very little risks in defending 1v1. Even when blocking shots he looks very calm rather than just throwing himself at it.
His biggest strength is also his biggest weakness. He lives by the sword and dies by the sword. His tendency to go and press at every opportunity can lead to being exploited by 1-2s and combinations. You drag Helander up the pitch following a striker and use the space he negated. In these five games, opponents didn't take advantage of this as often as they should have. Whomever Helander partners with will need to have a very good understanding.
An element of his game that needs improvement is with the ball.
Bologna weren't a possession team from the matches I saw but Helander took the simple option too many times. Rangers will see the lions share of the ball and Helander will be asked to break the lines if he can. I didn't see him playing or attempting to go through the lines enough in these five matches.
For me, this is very similar to Connor Goldson. Goldson had the responsibility to play through and was a bit hit & miss until Gerrard's tactical shift in the second half of the season really brought out the best in his passing. See the most recent Celtic game as the perfect example.
Helander will need to adapt as Goldson did. From these 5 matches, it's difficult to tell if Helander can or can't do it. Just that he didn't do it. More playing around the back than playing from the back.
Filip Helander is 6ft 4 but aerially he was a bit of a mixed bag. From open play, he won most of his aerial duels without dominating coming up against the likes of Edin Dzeko & Cristiano Ronaldo.
I'm nitpicking but he could definitely be more effective at defending set-pieces. He seemed too focused on the man at times, grappling instead of looking for the ball then other times his man would get free and get a knockdown. For a man of Helander's size, he should be giving nothing away. A more aerial league should play into his hands and I'm sure he can be sharper at set-pieces.
In these five games, Helander made very few mistakes. Defensively sound without making a fuss. The two big mistakes he did make however lead to goals. He failed to clear a cross which landed at Paulo Dybala's feet and brought Stephan El Shaarawy down for a penalty.
In my opinion, Rangers have signed what will likely be their best centre back in the squad. The positives far outweigh the negatives and this looks like a really good investment.
A centre back who looks comfortable around some of the elite in Football? Count me in.
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