GRAEME MURTY has revealed Rangers' twin attack may be a regular feature after blowing away Ayr in the Scottish Cup.
Alfredo Morelos and Jason Cummings combined perfectly to grab three goals between them in the 6-1 rout of the Honest men. Just as importantly, two of the midfield four - made up of Jamie Murphy, Josh Windass, Sean Goss and Greg Docherty - also got on the score sheet.
And despite starting off with a lone frontman, the Rangers boss revealed a diamond may be forever behind two strikers if his side continue to embrace the system.
He said: “It worked as a diamond in the fact of that we got our full-backs high, we kept the ball and Jason and Alfredo got chances, but we need to do more work on their build-up, on their runs and their movement.
“We also need to do work with Greg on his understanding of the outside of the diamond and how we’d like to play it.
"I thought Sean and Greg looked better as a two rather than Sean just sitting on his own, because that allows Greg to see the game in front of him.
"“But I thought that, all told, we created numerous chances from the full-backs joining in with late play.
“Declan and James epitomise the attacking threat that a full-back needs to bring now in the modern game in the final third.
“I thought that the supply line those two provided really caused Ayr problems and allowed our front three, as it was at the time, to go and really concentrate on being in the box and being a threat. To get five goals from those three [Morelos, Cummings and Windass] I thought was a fantastic return and I think we need to find a way to utilise the threats that we have."
Murty believes the current men at his disposal on the back of the transfer window just emphasises the depth of squad available now at Ibrox.
Speaking to Rangers TV, he added: "he goals that we scored, and the people that have scored them, just underlines I think the strength that we can have if we move the ball quicker, if we move the ball with more tempo.
“I thought in the first half each individual took too many touches. I thought we took at least two touches too many to shift the ball to a different area.
“Once we started to shift the ball quicker as we talked about at half-time, I thought that Ayr found it really difficult to defend the width of the pitch.”
Meanwhile, Murty has praised the impact of Murphy since the former Motherwell man arrived from Brighton during the window on the back of his first Rangers goal on Sunday.
He said: “He’s a Rangers fan and he’s been talking about it. Greg Docherty is a Rangers fan, so we have people in here who know what it means to play for Rangers and who have been supporting the club for their entire life. That’s not enough by the way. Just supporting us isn’t enough, having quality as well has to be the key part of it.
“But I was delighted with the way Jamie took his run on, took the defender on one v one, showed good confidence, good pace and power as well, and the finish was excellent."
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