Down under The cosh
Size of rebuild job ahead for Aussie is huge as his new-look Hoops fail to lay glove on Covid-hit Gers
AND just like that the pressure transfers from one side of Glasgow to the other.
Just when Rangers seemed at their most vulnerable and ravaged by a coronavirus outbreak that left them without a manager, a goalkeeper or even a right-back , they ground out a victory which has robbed their old rivals of the momentum that had been building up behind Ange Postecoglou.
The big Aussie has now got off to the worst league start of any Parkhad boss in more than 20 years and even though the progress he has made in a short space of time has been as stark as it has been impressive he must have left Ibrox yesterday feeling as if the hard work is only just beginning.
Yes, his players imposed themselves on the first derby of the season and true, they passed the ball around between themselves for long periods of the first half in particular.
But they achieved next to nothing with it. Ultimately, they lost another match because they still haven’t worked out how to defend a decent set-piece.
This time Filip Helander bagged the winner with a free header from a Borna Barisic corner and as soon as Joe Hart waved it through into the back of his net, there was only going to be one outcome.
That realisation must deeply trouble Postecoglou who had made the short trip across the River Clyde feeling as if he was on the verge of cracking the code as Celtic’s manager, even after the defeat suffered in Holland on Thursday as his team made it through into the Europa League despite being undone on the night by AZ Alkmaar.
Given the circumstances, that result was easy enough to shrug off. But this second successive loss may prove somewhat more difficult to get over, especially given the circumstances with which Rangers were grappling going into derby day.
Steven Gerrard watched it from his couch, as did first and second-choice keepers Allan McGregor and Jon McLaughlin. Skipper James Tavernier was also stuck in the house as expected but standin boss Gary McAllister was dealt another blow before kick-off when the skipper’s understudy, Nathan Patterson, was also ordered into isolation.
Credit here where it is due. And plenty of it. Not only did
Robby McCrorie pick up the gloves but the 23-year-old was just about faultless in everything he was asked to do. Not that there was much of it.
In fact, McCrorie hardly had a serious save to make for almost 84 minutes which came as a major surprise given Postecoglou’s penchant for sending his team out with all guns blazing.
McCrorie’s first contribution came midway through the first half when he raced out of his box to lash a through ball to safety and from that moment he was almost entirely untroubled.
The first half was a thoroughly odd affair. It rattled by at 100 miles per hour and yet nothing much happened. Celtic had plenty of the ball but seldom looked like inflicting any serious damage while Rangers struggled to work out how to get a foot on the ball for a decent length of time.
And yet, even though the champions were being forced out of their stride, they still carried a threat on the counter-attack.
Or they would have done had Ryan Kent – for all of his effort and energy– not been guilty of picking the wrong option at precisely the wrong times.
Kent did rattle the base of Hart’s left-hand post with just more than half an hour on the clock but, not for the first time this season, the Rangers talisman played as if his mind was somewhere else.
And it was a similar story at the other end, when Odsonne Edouard missed the best chance of the half, fluffing his
lines horribly in front of goal after being picked out by Kyogo Furuhashi when he ought to have been tucking it away with his eyes shut.
These are matters that will now dominate proceedings over the course of the next couple of days and which may determine this season’s title fight.
How many players will Postecoglou lose before the transfer window closes and will he have enough time left to secure replacements?
Has Edouard’s last bolt been shot as a Celtic player and is Ryan Christie also still eyeing a move across the border?
As for Rangers, Gerrard must be wondering if Kent is coming or going.
Also, Barisic looked like a man saying a rueful goodbye as he made his way off the pitch yesterday, with yet another big-game assist under his belt.
The Croat took a moment to lay both hands on the Ibrox turf and if this was a sign that his time here is up, then how does Gerrard cope without him?
Yes, Calvin Bassey looks ready and eager to make a push for a regular starting place but Gerrard would still require cover if Barisic moves on. And if Kent is the bigmoney sacrifice, then how does the manager replace a player of such enormous creative talent?
Rangers though, came up with the answers that mattered yesterday with Leon Balogun slotting in at right-back and turning in a man-of-the-match performance, snuffing out the threat of Furuhashi first and later Christie.
It was only when Furuhashi took over from Edouard in a more central position that Celtic’s new boy started to cause problems with his movement but McCrorie’s right boot thwarted the striker when he got a glimpse of goal with just six minutes left on the clock. In the end, it was all relatively comfortable for Rangers who upped their own energy levels after the halftime interval and used this increased intensity to get their noses in front. By the time Helander had headed the opener, they had grasped control of the contest and it was a lead they would not give up. Now it’s up to Postecoglou and Celtic to puzzle out how to end this dominance before early-season pressure turns into something much more serious.