Rangers, the Pac-Man that never stops

 Rangers 1-2 Hibernian.

The main issue with Rangers’ American owners is that they haven’t got a scoobie about what playing identity they actually want for the club. Some might say the Yanks were being pragmatic when they first championed progressive football—with all that cardboard-disruption nonsense—bringing in the failed Russell Martin and then Danny Röhl (who escaped his own looming disaster just in time to flee back to the warm embrace of Red Bull).

Realising they’d made a right pig's ear of that approach, Cavanagh & Co. quickly pulled a u-turn. They opted for a local formula, thinking it would build consensus and bring a bit of calm to a club that’s been an absolute shambles for decades. Enter Derek McInnes and that whole "Scottish core" business, which everyone has already completely forgotten about just a month after enthusiastically waving their arms in victory. Derek had built a rigid setup at Hearts. But let’s be honest, Rangers are no' Hearts. The Edinburgh lot didn't demand beautiful, sparkling football alongside immediate results; the patience there was a completely different story. Rangers' ambition is endless, but the reality is downright calamitous. Today, just like yesterday, Rangers is a pacman devouring everything in its path.

Hibernian—or rather, Don Robertson and the VAR—started putting a massive spanner in the works for Rangers with that bloody scandalous penalty. The kind of decision that leaves you proper rattled, a game-changing call just when we were settling onto the pitch.

Your players, my players.

The recruitment. The day kicked off with news seemingly designed just to put everyone in a foul mood: the rejected bid from Galatasaray for Chermiti. The subsequent injury, combined with the match result, made things feel even more bleak. The club has decided to stick with the plan of buying relatively young, no-name players from random leagues, hunting for that rare gem to flip for a massive profit down the line. But here's the daft truth: you don’t find many Igamanes growing in the desert. They’re doing this without thinking whether it completely guts any chance of building a winning setup. On top of that, we've got the latest trend—pandering to the current manager's wishlist. If it was Naderi and Chukwuani for Röhl before, today it’s Devlin, McCrorie, and Shankland for Derek. Every single one of them is a total flop, one after the other.

Rangers couldn't create a thing in the first half. Curtis had to resort to lumping crosses into the box, praying someone would get a head on one of those balls. Add to that a non-stop, paralyzing fear of making a mistake, and a total lack of movement that we simply cannot afford. Yokota followed Curtis's lead, trying to force something out of nothing until he was subbed off. Vanja and Raskin did their best to help the lad out.

We came out for the second half needing an equaliser, throwing everything forward in a desperate, chaotic, and messy push. Just like the Dundee United match, it left our backline completely exposed to any counter-attack, no matter how minor. This frantic rush was paired with one of Derek’s biggest obsessions: playing Diomande out as a winger. The lad completely divides opinion. He looks like our best player and our worst player at the same time, and I wouldn’t argue with either side. I found myself feeling that exact same conflict against the Polish side, and again today.

We scrambled an equaliser through an own goal—which is another massive worry, seeing as it was the exact same story against the Poles. I’m no' going to slag off Shankland today, it’s far too early for that, but we desperately need our number 9 to be a lethal finisher. Their goal felt entirely predictable, but what was truly mental was the sheer number of their players allowed to wander freely into our box. We lost again. Absolute rubbish.

Clement is the symptom of the times

For some time, there are people who continue to support Clement (with the months they have been fewer and fewer, the results dictate the times in the office), obviously, everyone can do what they want. What I do not agree with is the disqualification that those who want him to leave are irrational beings who are moved by impulses and emotions. I am not going to put everything in the first person, I am only going to say that the end of last season and the defeat in the Scottish Cup final was the clear indication that Clement was not prepared to be manager in Scotland. You only have to look at the results and performances (not only those of this season, short-term memory seems to fail). Another thing: this belief that we are stubborn, selfish, that we do not see that this is a long-term thing. "The manager needs continuity," I am reading in X of some accounts these days. We all want continuity, we always say that this institution built its foundations on stability. But a succession of mismanagement has brought us to this point, those who decide have been doing it wrong for quite some time. Do we have to tie ourselves to a marriage until death do us part for all the mistakes that were made?

A club like Rangers that has not won anything in recent years (I'm talking about the important things) and our main rival has taken everything. It is quite logical to see the manager's position as something temporary until he proves his worth. Clement failed in all departments, his game is not exciting, far from it, he did not contribute anything to Scottish football.

The cycle is over

 

The cycle is over. What comes in the next few weeks (or months) will be the oppressive prolongation of the irreversible decline of the reset to take another path, a fresh start. There is always time to change the course of the ship (when it is obvious), but then it is too late. A cycle that did not revolutionize at all, without progress in different departments and that did not know how to change in time, neither in tactics nor in strategy. 

The problem didn´t start at Rugby Park, did it? It was February 2024, and we were beating Kilmarnock 2-1 after a first half in which the home side had won the midfield, exposing the “vulnerabilities” of the Clement system. A breakdown had occurred which later became evident in dull and ugly football. At that time, still in the fight for the title, everyone was saying that we had to wait, “when Clement chooses his own players this will change” etc etc (We should stop making self-indulgent statements for a while). But there was no tactical improvement, warning of what was to come. The succession of defeats followed, including Motherwell at Ibrox and Ross County away.

If there is a game that defines and will define the title, it is the Old Firm. It is the kind of game that you must study, analyze and over-analyze until you are sick of it. Clement played it the same every time he had the chance, as if reality had to automatically adapt to his idealized vision of the game. Without revising the forms and the specific characteristics of the personnel involved, if it was necessary to defend in another way, if celtic played with a midfield with continuity. If they put pressure on Tavernier´s vulnerable zone (putting the Japanese running next to him), something had to be done, and not in one game, but in a succession of games that include this season´s. This seemed to be just a matter of hitting quickly and seeing what happens, nothing more.

Dessers is undoubtedly a player chosen by Beale, but Clement gave him continuity, choosing him as his number 9. Even in December he preferred to bring in players in another position, although Shankland was talked about for two months. And this season he only brought in an unknown Moroccan, who is not a striker in the box either, or Danilo, most of the time injured) as his only replacement.

Clement can´t do anything else, his few ideas have run out. His changes are incomprehensible most of the time, he hasn´t provided the team with the planning to modify the game plan if it fails or motivate the players to return to the pitch with a different spirit.  How is this going to unravel? The big problem is the contract and the bad decision to extend the contract. We knew that the accumulation of frustrations had to end. A club like Rangers cannot afford such things.

This is the Final

Reaching a European final is not an everyday thing, so many things have happened along the way that 2008 is not that far away, but there it is, already like a snapshot of what could have been possible. I am not going to talk today about the bottom tier of Scottish football, those difficult years that we had to fill with something to get back where we belonged. The impressive title 55 that I randomly choose as a prologue to recent times.

Not everyone reaches a final, you can imagine the number of clubs that want to be there that day, play, sing, lose their voices shouting a goal, fighting to keep that trophy. Seeing our club there is already a huge achievement. Make no mistake, I am not a conformist, from the first day that Rangers appeared in my life, I understood that the DNA of this club is about trophies, glory. It's the legacy we grew up with. This is not the end of the road, no, not at all, history will continue to be written, remembering each one of those who were there to leave their mark. This is one of those relevant moments that each generation of Rangers fans live as their own, the one that we will keep in our memory for the rest of our lives, it is what we will tell our grandchildren or whoever sees us with a light blues top on the street . Seville, like Manchester or Barcelona, ​​Florence, these days also Dortmund are and will be the landscape where Rangers write their European stories, for better, for worse. I remember that year, 1992, Rangers looked like a speeding train across Europe, Battle of Britain with Leeds and then that group to get to the final that didn't go. It was for Marseille in the end, but my father, who at that time did not understand why I followed Rangers and not his local team. Seeing my frustration, he told me "life is long enough for you to see Rangers win something big" and he didn't say anything else. Hopefully on Wednesday I can greet my father in heaven and tell him, we got it.

You who can, go to Seville and show what this club is capable of, how impressive its crowd is.

WATP

Aberdeen 0-1 Rangers. Wee blitzkrieg to win a complicated game

We are not going to agree, we must start from that premise, and so to read this text, you must first leave the sharp weapons, the bladed weapons out. Otherwise, go back to the butcher shop on Twitter. The blog aims to ask questions, often without answering them because in this game hardly anyone can. Also, over the years I have learned that questions are always more interesting than answers. 

Thank you!

Initial rationale: Winning the first game of the season and against Aberdeen at Pittodrie is the best possible start, despite certain lapses when we did not play well (mostly in the second half). It was a priori, a demanding confrontation. Twenty minutes of volcanic play and more than an hour without being able to kill the game, living from Kent's goal gave us three vital points.

Aribo in Gene Kelly mode(*). At the beginning of the game, Aribo was very active, almost always playing short, showing himself to receive the ball and return it in that place where the completion of the play requires it. The lad makes his game an act of physical generosity that implies an exciting sense of duty, a respect for the principle of solidarity that helps in the collective. A priori we expected Joe to be the master of the kitchen in that part of the field where many things are decided to tame the ball.

All together they advanced in block, Aribo with dance passes he got rid of rivals, assisting Alfie, Hagi showing up to receive and then Kent was activated and his perpetual partnership with Barisic seemed to be working, but no, there was not much movement around (Kent with spaces to play in may be indomitable, but locked up needs more assistance, collaboration and a better understanding of the collective game). We lost the ball and start again. Hagi attempted a dribble, hesitated, slipped and lost the ball.

The idea of our game was present but Aberdeen proposed something very different. If Gerrard was expecting an opponent to fight for possession, he hit his face with a rival more predisposed to interfere than to rule. To give the battle in the central circle and the periphery, there where the locals pressed to make us uncomfortable or the receivers of the ball. The sheeps were bumper cars to destroy, specialists in the interruption and the master of the keys to close the doors. This became a struggle of push and determination. Aberdeen's spaces were barely spared on the wings, meager attempts by a rather poor team in the attack in the first half (the old and anodyne attempt to surprise with long passes). Also their neutralization strategy worked, they obstructed the creation and game channels. I never believed that McInnes was a great technician, but if he is someone who knows how to build traps and fences, something totally different.

Balogun's presence surprised some by Edmundson's recent continuity in defense. The Nigerian came from completing the season with Wigan so he was fit. Immediately, if we look closely, we notice why Gerrard chose him. The gaffer wants purposeful lads, who defend with the ball at their feet, attacking, determined to keep the game well away from their own area. Edmundson is the kind of fierce defender, strong but he does not have these characteristics. Again, Balogun is purposely the kind of defender who gets ahead on the field with the ball dominated, offering a variety of playing opportunities. In the 33rd minute, Balogun was encouraged, facing high, crossed the lines and reached the rival area to be fouled in a vital place. Then Tav missed the free kick.

The former Mainz was also exposed on the defensive side and did well. He went with impetus to the divided balls. In the second half, Balogun reacted quickly and aborted a clear attack by the locals.

In the heat of that football of breaks and rips:  1-0 Kent!!!! It was about hunting for opportunity. The only one to subvert those old schemes. We surprised them; we needed that fast, clairvoyant ball that Alfie sends through the middle of the sheeps´ backline for Kent to define at pleasure. In this game you have to have speed and mind and the ability to surprise, even more with closed rivals like them.

With more spaces and meters to run, Rangers resumed his game, with some acts of used goldsmiths and opened the field. Took refuge in the odd center, had Hagi active to shoot from outside the area. Although we kept making mistakes with the ball. I expected more audacity from Hagi, more creative faith, that quality that treasures but does not run in tight games like this. It happens, however, that the ball did not arrive in conditions either, a spherical one that places it between the lines. If there is a footballer capable of raising the revolutions of this opaque Rangers, that is Hagi, we are going to need more of him, but also help him shine.

During the preseason, Alfredo was always committed to the evolution of the attack, believing that he is a simple definer is a terrible conceptual error. He breathes thanks to the goals but the ecosystem of his game is not only the imposition on the area but the construction. That yes, is melancholic by the absence of celebratory screams. Alfie lives on self-confidence.

In Pittodrie, Alfredo was consistent with his teammates, provided the ball with his back to the goal for those who came from the front to kick. The goal is quite graphic of Alfredo's contribution. Extremes like Kent going in to take advantage of passes. Or the smell of the Colombian throwing off marks so that the teammates reached the top. Initiating maneuvers, moving defenders away from their area or taking advantage of poor control. He moved dodging the physical game, sticky, to the limit proposed by the sheeps. It seems that McInnes is preparing his players to harass Alfie; fortunately he did not enter that game this time.

Should Alfredo stay up waiting to receive the plate served for dinner or down to rebuild himself in another class of player making a more participatory game? Would that require us to have another player who plays the tough number nine role?

The road experienced the kind of radical change that we suffer when we visited Pittodrie. Aberdeen (with fewer resources than in the recent past) blurred us more in the second half. Again we made mistakes. They installed their game by pressing on the side of Kamara and Tav, fast transitions and some confusion of ours to manage the inability to possess the ball without losing it. The encounter was a heap of small battles for divided balls, where Aberdeen took advantage.

Kamara is asked for many roles. It has a round trip, ideal for schemes like Gerrard, which demands great efforts on the flanks. Even the Finnish occupies the empty space left by the skipper whenever attacks. Nor do I believe that the problem of operation and speed in the transition are the sole fault of Kamara. We are attending one more chapter of "point the finger at someone." It seems that Bongani Zungu is the heir to the throne of that position (at least the publicly acclaimed). That will solve a faster and more decisive game, but it will not finish solving the hole that remains in the right sector when Tav rises and someone has to cover the area.

I think however more needs to Jack in the leading role, not only being in front of the defense to relay. He can organize and scream at the rest with contagious energy. Manage the rhythm of the ball, reactivate recovery efforts after the loss of the ball, overcome the pressure of the opponent and arm the offensive.

Gerrad reached into the bench and put Arfield for Hagi to try to colonize the ball, it did not work. We need to better manage these crises of absence of the ball. We retrieve the ball to lose it again. When we do not have the ball we must be organized, at least to govern the spaces.

The next stop, Leverkusen. Rangers greifen an!!! WATP

(*) for young people homework: search gene Kelly on YouTube.

The tasty charm of the gamble

This post is dedicated to all those who know of my unconditional love for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Clarification. This post is an outline of the conditions of possibility that Rangers has after the first pre-season friendly against Bury. It is not a definitive version but the beginning of the road. Enjoy.

It is not surprising that the mainstream of Scottish journos write to shock or put themselves above the game, without ever developing a strong idea about the world they want and/or try to describe. Not accidentally, this happens because they point to the instantaneous reaction of social networks, they no longer write for an eager reader of opinion. It is time to admit it; there is a certain "utility of hatred" for which the Spiers, the Suttons and the whole heap with similar biases sentenced Gerrard as "gamble". It is the easy place of opinion. Fast profit, that´s what they get, being the hashtag for a few days, and they succeed. Egoism sells, hate spread sells! In the times that run the journalism applies the logic of the suicide motorists: better to arrive before to arrive well.

In the universe of counterfactual thinking, Gerrard is comparable to examples of players who failed when they hung up their boots and become managers, one of the most notable Diego Maradona, closest Ally McCoist, and on the other side, full of virtuosity, or the side that wins theses silly discussions, Pep Guardiola (nobody never places theses examples in spaces of exceptionality where the triumph or failure is more determine by other variables). I have read hours of interactions on Twitter of fans postulating all sorts of contradictory, dystopian thoughts, product of future concern, and expressions of desires without nuances.

The years of accumulated frustrations, from the repetitive porosity that there was no plan B, to the pitch geography wasn´t quite right of the marketing specialist and phlegmatic demagoguery, excess of the Latino passion of Pedro that showed an absolute lack of imagination (and a supine ignorance about Scottish football) to reach the plump face of the smiley Murty, which cost us historical defeats. Clear demonstrations that improvisation does not work, as an Argentinean I have also see it in this World Cup.

Pedro did not come to understand that the game models are not exported from one country to another but it is the idiosyncrasy that determines the establishment and the process. When he wanted to impose something different, he had already lost the dressing-room. But that is already ancient history.

After the first trial, Stevie G has a genuine football mold, orderly, able to combine the best features of Klopp´s vertiginosity, something of Brenda, with a little touch of Guardiola and the circulation we see in any other ambitious team. No one is original, even the most reformist took the previous examples, giving them their own subjectivity. Gamble? There are always aspirants to repeat that wee word before the first storm. Have the brolly on hand, the seasons are long.

Stevie G was populated by the best possible people, another thing, very different, is to be accompanied by the results and know how to manage the weight of the backpack, a stage that was marked by the victory of our eternal and obsessed rival. The unpredictability of this sport forces one to be more observant than the owner of the hammer with which to strike in favor of the wind of an already known result.

Against Bury, a clear game was seen, a block to enhance the invidualities. Gerrard made his request elliptically. "Play fast", in the jargon coded from day one of the strenuous preseason in Spain, involves doing it with players who know how to profile naturally, accommodate the body when they receive the ball without losing time, control in an instant and, if possible, pass with a touch to the next teammate. Strategy and associated football, the cadence of pass and orientation changes to a flatter attack. When Rangers does not have the ball, everyone press forward, in the first half, one of the gains was that Candeias stole the ball and led an attack although the play then deflated. The Portuguese seems to have won a place in the line-up also for his sacrifice in midfield management. A first criticism is that have to work in that the speed of the pressure does not transform into a foul and in not losing the ball and the positions by pressing.

We have ceased to be that team that was a constant producer of centers to the area for the exclusive merit of Candeias or Tavernier (deserved new skipper) to couple it as a resource to which to turn as an alternative.

Conceptually, Rangers football can start in the own area (Goldson and Katic, two wall but also skillful to pass the ball) and go through the midfield (Ross McCrorie standing in front of the defenders, helping in the transition when necessary) before finishing in the opposite area with Murphy, Morelos (his voracity and ambition to kick the goal from the narrowest angle has no limits, even at the risk of receiving complaints from the crowd or his teammates).

Awakening from Russell Martin´s nightmare. The backbone is focused on consolidating a defensive strength, like that of almost every team that aspires to a certain degree of soundness requires a keeper to give security and a couple of strong central defenders. This was the first sign of what I understand as intelligent planning. If anything Goldson and Katic showed in this game it was patience, perseverance and mentality. In Ibrox, the defenders had the ball, which was, over any added value, the best way to defend against the opponent. Katic, Goldson, Tavernier, Flanaghan were ahead of that in the pitch.

In the second half of last season, Alfredo Morelos mentally suffered the disconnection of players who have spent weeks without any expectation of competing. Some low yields, not many interlocutors who speak Spanish, a time hibernating in the bench, his awkwardness to retweet the possibility of signing for Besiktas, the bad intention of some in the social networks (filming his little attitude in the half-time) conspired to create an ecosystem of malaise. Difficult to play with a confused head. Gerrard understood everything immediately, his phrases are not accidental: “We love the player. The fans love the player”. There are players that you can give them half a meter, and others who can´t be given a millimeter because they dance to you, like Morelos who dances Colombian cumbia.  We need someone like him to dance defenses.

Ross McCrorie, a real headache for those who fix the Ibrox lawn. He pressed well forward, cut the game or the possibility of a pass. Apparently, Gerrard encourages Ross to move forward and press, and that resulted in the first half in recovering the ball. Ross has to work a little more on the final pass. Many teams that press forward are not well organized. And it is true that when the first line of pressure is broken, real highways open because players who do not perform the pressure are not well placed to prevent counter-attacks by closing those highways. It is important that players feel comfortable when they press in the opposite field and Gerrard creates the containment dam.

Initially, because I can´t describe a system with only one game, we have not reduced our game form to the sides, but we are looking for more alternatives, rotations and players appearing in different places, there are no necessarily rigid positions. With the passing of weeks and works, this will be a "design team". Murphy, Arfield or Windass do not have the weight of tactical chains, which often immobilize players in a repetitive role. Arfield will give the team the surprise of joining from the middle (in his repertoire is the old resource of dribbling the rival, so rare in today´s football. The ideology of competitiveness has limited the plays of risk and fantasy in which you can lose the ball), help in the game kitchen and get in front of the goal to have more goal option. Scott´s first goal starts with his pressure in the middle, in what is a multi-player pressure, sometimes hasty but coordinated.

Many of the goals have shown the patience to move the ball from one side to the other, until finding Arfield, Alfredo, Zak Rudden, among others. There is material to make triangulations that culminate in the small area. Glen Middleton arrived at Ibrox in silence. I heard a lot of his name and Rudden´s from some lads that faithfully follow the games of youngsters on Twitter. In a few minutes, Glenn provided some waist, precision passes, burst doses and raids into the area to break bolts. It takes more work, more weeks and more competition and the new faces will add more quality and alternatives, unfortunately there is no more time before the Europa League legs, it is a risk that has to be taken.

Before saying goodbye. After having to read months of aggressions on my nationality, in what I have been treated as a prisoner of war, collaborationist, among other things, I have reduced to the minimum expression my interactions on Twitter, nobody wants to be in a place that does not enjoy. That does not mean giving in, but starting to prioritize the energies in more important things. So from now on, the post of the games will be the form of interaction. I´m sorry because I´ve met many valuable, very important people, so I decided not to deactivate the account.

Living the dream!

Life tends to make us take different paths, physically distance us from what we want, but fortunately there are feelings and memory to give validity to what we love, our passions. For decades I have read the most fabulous stories of the Bears across the globe with a common denominator, the repeated desire to return one day to Ibrox to see a game and share a pint. At the end of the day, celebrate the reunion with the identity.

I do not remember how many years have passed since I met Stuart (@RangersLoyalSA) and his passion for Rangers. With Stuart, we created Rangers Loyal South America to expand the voice of Rangers in the region. From a remote place in Buenos Aires, the Argentinian capital, where he is living for seven years, Stuart encouraged his love for The Mighty to each of his children, which always meant something valuable to someone like me who was not born in the United Kingdom. The longing, the desire to return is never abandoned.

Now, I want to help him, and if someone can help me help him, I will be eternally grateful. Stuart has three children: Henry, Ally (I don´t must explain why he has that name lol) and Harry. They were never in Ibrox to see a game -only Henry was around Ibrox when he was only a month old- this would be the first time, we all know that these events remain for life in our personal stories, a matter of proud to tell to our descendants. Although Henry was born in England, he speaks English and Spanish impressively (I was always surprised by the spontaneity to move from one language to the other in a matter of seconds), the rest are Argentinians, but not so much, if you know Stuart´s house is full of British flags!!!

Next July 12, three generation of the Sinclair family will be in Ibrox for the Europa League first qualifying round against Shkupi. The mere fact of writing it make me goosebumps. And I want to give them a gift, help them to be in the pitch by seeing their heroes in the first person. It would be unforgettable that the children will enter on the pitch with the players. You know that being a Bear flag was one of the best things I´m going to take away from this life. Seeing the atmosphere of Ibrox from that center of the world is something that everything Bearette and Bear should do sometime in life. I would have liked Jim Hannah to be at the front of all this, I think he was a specialist and he knew how to empathize with these stories, although he is serious and that was very good for that position, for something was the boss!!

From now on I will hit all the doors necessary to make these young people fulfill their dream, if someone can help me, we will be shoulder to shoulder so that The Rangers Family added more stories to their inexhaustible tradition. Seeing those wee Bears smile is worth it!  WATP

If you can share this publication so that someone from the club takes note of this event, I say Thank you!