Rangers vs Dundee United. Scottish Premiership.
Ibrox Stadium.
Leon Balogun, Ryan Jack, Brandon Barker and Alfredo Morelos injured during Ibrox victory
Saturday 12 September 2020 20:34, UK
Record-breaking Rangers wrote themselves into the history books with a seventh consecutive clean sheet in a 4-0 win over Dundee United.
But the result came at a cost for Steven Gerrard as he watched four of his players suffer injuries.
The Light Blues became the first Scottish side to open a season with seven straight shut-outs as they maintained their three-point lead at the top of the table.
Player of the month for August Ryan Kent opened the scoring early before skipper James Tavernier sealed victory on his 250th appearance for the club.
Kemar Roofe and Scott Arfield rounded off the scoring midway through the second half but Gerrard will be left sweating after Leon Balogun, Ryan Jack, Brandon Barker and Alfredo Morelos all had to be replaced.
The Ibrox casualty concerns began in midweek with confirmation Joe Aribo could miss a further six weeks with an ankle injury that has already kept him out for a month.
United - who stay in eighth place - had Lawrence Shankland back on the bench after a similar lay-off.
But the game had not even kicked off when Gerrard had more to worry about.
Filip Helander was scheduled to start among the substitutes after reporting back from Sweden duty just 24 hours earlier but was hurried into the starting line-up at late notice when Balogun hurt himself in the warm-up.
Jack then went down 11 minutes in with an apparent recurrence of the calf issues which bothered him last term. Barker did not last much longer as he pulled up after chasing a ball into the corner.
Thankfully for the Rangers boss, his side had already taken the lead by this point.
Rangers had created little in the opening 13 minutes but Kent's trickery soon opened up United's defence.
Combining with Ianis Hagi on the edge of the box, the £7million winger carried on his stunning start to the new season as he sent Ryan Edwards one way, then another, before slamming through Benjamin Siegrist's legs.
Morelos was sent on to replace Barker but fluffed his first sight at goal as he failed to connect cleanly with Kent's cut-back.
But Rangers were two up seven minutes before the break. Borna Barisic's cross took a nick off Luke Bolton but still managed to find Tavernier at the back post and he muscled Jamie Robson to prod home on his milestone run-out.
Roofe spurned a good chance to extend Rangers' lead moments into the second half as he fired straight at Siegrist.
The former Leeds forward was involved again as he put Morelos in behind, but Kent could not convert as the Colombian fired across the face of goal.
That proved to be Morelos' last involvement as just moments later he was stretchered off with a nasty wound on his thigh after being caught high by Edwards' shocking challenge.
Incredibly, referee Kevin Clancy did not even talk to the Terrors defender when he could easily have flashed red.
Siegrist repelled two more efforts from Hagi and Calvin Bassey but could do nothing after 68 minutes as Roofe got a toe to Arfield's strike to divert it home.
Ian Harkes almost shattered Rangers' clean sheet run with five minutes left as his fierce drive shook Jon McLaughlin's crossbar.
But it was the hosts who pounced again with three minutes remaining as Hagi teed up Arfield to slam in the fourth.
Rangers manager Steven Gerrard said: "I've been really clear that we need to add so I think we maybe need to try to accelerate that.
"Going off what I have just seen in the treatment room, there is definitely going to be two, if not three, missing for a couple of weeks. We need to add pretty quickly so that our numbers are OK.
"Leon felt tightness in his quad. Hopefully we've caught that one early. We could have risked that one but there was no need as we had Fil Helander ready to come in.
"Ryan has a calf problem, which we'll need to scan to see the extent of that. Brandon has done a hamstring, which is normally at least a couple of weeks.
"And Morelos has got a gash on his knee. From the side, I was worried because it looked a lot worse than a gash. He's a lucky boy. The doctor is confident if we manage it right over the next few days we might have a chance for Thursday.
"I don't want to make headlines and say a kid should have got this or that. don't want to be that type of manager. But I'd be very interested to see what the decision would've been from the officials had the shoe been on the other foot and Alfredo had made that tackle."
Dundee United manager Micky Mellon said: "We were determined to come here and have a go because that's the type of Dundee United team I want to be the manager of. I don't want to sit on our own 18-yard box and hope for the best. We know what we need to improve on."
Rangers will be away to Hibernian next Sunday in the Scottish Premiership, live on Sky Sports (kick-off 12pm). Dundee United will host St Mirren at home on Saturday (kick-off 3pm).
