If ever we saw an admission from Derek McInnes that he got something wrong, a mistake v Dundee, that he’d outright denied getting wrong, it was his selection against St Johnstone.

As we know, he tried a tactical tweak, according to him, in the pre-match against Dundee. A tactical tweak, of course, that did not work out.

Rangers drew the match with an absolutely diabolical first half performance, which may have improved slightly in the second but wasn’t enough to take all three points. Far from it, in fact.

McInnes changes his approach

Fast forward one full week later and Rangers elected to go for a different strategy.

Kevin Kelsy came back into the team, but Bouanani kept his place. But Gassama dropped to the bench and Rangers returned to the two up front with Nederi behind the Venezuelan.

Lo and behold, a much more fluid performance, while not spectacular, which would not have been surprising given the absolutely atrocious weather in Govan.

But nevertheless, a considerably superior display against a side in a similar position to where Dundee are and no Derek McInnes mistake in sight.

St Johnstone, of course, have a similar record to Steven Pressley’s side and were going to offer some pretty robust resistance.

And indeed, only half-time at 1-0 did suggest that that was a dangerous lead.

But the performance had clearly been better. While some individuals fell slightly short in places, the overall team display was solid.

Back to what was working

And McInnes has changed back to what had been working before, which has now returned to working again.

While McInnes, as we said, denied that there was a mistake with the last selection against Dundee, his reverting of that mistake back to what worked before is his biggest indication of his hands up to admit he was wrong.

We do not mind a manager who gets things wrong. They are as human as any of the players.

The players, of course, are always following the manager’s instructions, the manager’s system and tactics.

And he is right to say that if a bad tactic works out well and you win the match, it doesn’t really matter what the tactic was as long as you got the points.

It’s only when you don’t win the match that the tactics come into question.

Seven wins and an unnecessary change

However, there’s also a logic that he’s overlooking, which was that the same tactic was winning seven matches in a row, only for him to unnecessarily change it.

Reverting back to what did win all those matches in a row and suddenly Rangers look back to their more efficient ways.

Of course, we’re not saying that during the seven matches in a row Rangers played outstandingly. They didn’t.

This indeed was probably the best that the team has played all season outside of the two Celtic victories.

But nevertheless, his correction to what he claimed he hadn’t changed or broken was indeed the right move from the manager, clearly accepting that he’d got something wrong and he switched it back to how it works again.

And ultimately, the three points justify the decision.

It was better management, a better system, a better team and a better performance.

Three points and pressure on Celtic

Three points are always what counts.

And while Rangers haven’t gotten top of the table, sadly, with this one, the pressure is now on Celtic for Sunday, whereby anything less than a victory and their lead is permanently cut again.

Time will tell on that front what Celtic do in their fixture on Sunday.

But for now, Derek McInnes can sleep a bit easier with a well-earned three points in absolutely appalling weather in Govan.