Ex-Gers star: Pedro could face the chop
his rule. He spoke to the players and said: “It has happened to us, but we have to keep moving forward.
“This is the message I gave to the players.
“Normally, I don’t speak with the players straight after a match but this was an extraordinary situation and I just told them that I have full confidence and trust in them.
“I will defend them all of the time. I will keep moving things forward, believe me.”
But Caixinha didn’t feel his players had been guilty of being overly confident.
Having won the first leg 1-0 at Ibrox, Rangers were expected to improve dramatically from having that first 90 minutes under their belts.
With the benefit of added fitness, the opportunity was there to perform with more style. Instead, it turned into a complete and utter nightmare.
Players such as Alfredo Morelos and Daniel Candeias were handed chances from the start to prove themselves at a European level.
Instead, they also both had nightmares.
They were not alone. Barely a single Rangers player got pass marks on an evening of ignominy which will live in the history books of the Ibrox club forever.
Caixinha didn’t need to be told these facts.
He was fully aware of the consequences and had no complaints about the barracking which was coming from outside as the fans booed and vented their anger at the desperate show and outcome.
But, if anything, the more boss Caixinha was questioned, the more his defiance and determination grew. He said: “I strongly believe, and even more now, because I’m a guy that always sees things forward that on bad moments you see the right people and I know the group of players I have. “I know I can count on them. We are building something that was not counting today because things didn’t go as we hope and again I assume all the responsibility of not getting to the group stages because that was our main goal.
“It is again something that’s part of the game when the results are not coming.
“I am the first face they come against and, if you don’t deliver results, you have to expect that. The fans are going to demand from you.
“I know coming to a massive club like this that, when these things happens, I am the one in the front line.
“I respect that, but I will keep doing my job going forward.
“It is always a setback going out in a qualifier knowing that you are better than the opponent.
“We did everything to get the result and it might happen once in a lifetime.
“One of things which was said before the game was unthinkable – and it has really happened.” GORDON DALZIEL last night said Pedro Caixinha’s head is on the chopping block after the worst result ever for a Scottish club in Europe.
The former Ibrox striker insists he’s never been a fan of the Rangers boss and believes he was finally found out against Luxembourg makeweights Progres Niederkorn.
As the Light Blues sunk to new depths, Dalziel is sure the Portuguese will be damned by a 2-0 defeat which all but confirmed he was the wrong pick to replace Mark Warburton.
He said: “I predicted from day one that Pedro wouldn’t be a good appointment and sadly it’s looking to be the case. He just isn’t for me.
“Everyone will say it’s too early to judge the man but I watched Rangers last season from the stands and tactically I felt he was naive.
“When he faced Celtic at Ibrox, he lined up in a diamond formation just days after he saw Graeme Murty do well by playing five at the back and getting a 1-1 draw at Celtic Park.
“Any manager deserves time to bring in his own players and let them settle in. He’s added eight but let’s not dress the defeat to Progres up as anything other than a disaster.
“To be eliminated from Europe by a side which finished in fourth place in Luxembourg is a shocker.
“I don’t know how any manager can get away with that. It’s a massive blow, seriously damaging for the club and the Rangers board will be asking if they’ve put the team into the hands of the right person.”
As the shockwaves made their way across the continent from the Stade Josy Barthel, Dalziel wonders if Caixinha’s fate has already been decided after the poverty of a display which almost defies description.
He said: “It’s the biggest humiliation I can recall in Scottish football and Pedro has a lot to do to recover the faith of the Rangers support.
“The fans will want his head and there’s no doubt it’s on the chopping block. I said last week that I believed Rangers would go out and win four or five nil against Progres at Ibrox.
“But when it was 1-0 I didn’t see any character in the side so there was always going to be a concern about going away from home and finishing the job.
“I hope I’m wrong as I believe we need a strong Rangers to make a great Premiership in Scotland but we have just seen them knocked out of Europe by a bunch of nobodies.”
Dalziel says the Gers gaffer’s pseudo intellectual coaching style is one complication too far and is convinced Caixinha’s recent comments have only added to his own conviction that his appointment last season is image over substance.
He said: “I am a critic of Pedro as I don’t believe you need to reinvent the wheel as a manager. I don’t think that’s required and I feel he’s the type of manager who believes he can do that. This result is a disaster for him.
“Since he came and there’s been this nonsense about ‘We are the People’ and the green boots issue, it’s something I don’t buy.
“I buy organisation, I buy skill, I buy bringing something new and a new dimension to the side.
“Rangers fans won’t be happy and I’ve said from day one I haven’t bought what he’s been selling as boss and it’s hard to see how he can bounce back from this.
“There were 50,000 fans at Ibrox last Thursday and to spend the money he has and not even get past this round is hard to believe.
“I actually read him talking about getting through to the group stage, incredible.”
The board will be asking if they’ve put the team in the hands of the right person
GORDON DALZIEL