Walter’s blueprint can help Gerrard’s Rangers get back on track
ONE of the secrets of Walter Smith’s longevity in football management was cold, hard pragmatism. He did what he had to do.
Gripes over the way his team lined up during his second spell at Rangers never bothered him much. When critics turned up their nose, he could march them up the marble staircase at Ibrox and point to the trophies.
The carping peaked before the UEFA Cup final of 2008 when Dutch coaching legend Louis van Gaal claimed the way Rangers played the game was ‘bad for football’.
Voted Manager of the Year by the Scottish Football Writers’ Association, Smith saw the funny side.
‘Dick Campbell got sacked with his team at the top of the league for not playing attractive enough football,’ he said in his acceptance speech. ‘Let’s hope that doesn’t f ****** catch on.’
That a 4-5-1 formation was never the prettiest was neither here nor there. When the tape machines were switched off, the Ibrox boss once ended a Murray Park Press conference with the perfect explanation for Wattenaccio.
‘When I change it from 4-5-1,’ he said, ‘we start losing games.’
Last season, Steven Gerrard found a different and effective way of winning titles. And no one could quibble with how he did it.
He shattered the 100-point barrier. His team ended the campaign as unbeaten Invincibles. Over 38 league games, Rangers conceded a miserly tally of just 13 goals.
In his final Sportsmail interview in March, Walter himself went out of his way to praise the current manager for making the job of stopping Celtic’s march to ‘the ten’ look easy.
Fast-forward to a new season and no one would say the job of managing Rangers looks easy now.
After 11 games in the cinch Premiership, the Ibrox side have already lost ten goals — three fewer than they conceded over the whole of the last campaign.
Rangers have conceded three more than a Celtic defence with no first-choice left-back. They’ve shipped two more than an unbeaten Hearts and three more than fourth-placed Dundee United. They’ve dropped six points at home, drawing three of their last four at Ibrox. In eight of their 11 league games, they’ve actually lost the first goal.
A team can get away with conceding goals if they’re scoring freely. Right now, Rangers aren’t doing that especially well either. The last time they scored more than two in a match was at bottom club Ross County on August 22.
And while they looked dangerous with every set-piece they fired at a makeshift Aberdeen back three on Wednesday night, they posed less of a threat in open play.
The return of Ryan Kent from injury could help with that. Unhappy with the way his side scrambled a point at home to Aberdeen, however, Gerrard has identified defence as the area in need of urgent attention. With the winners of this season’s Premiership title in line for automatic qualification for the group stage of the Champions League and a £30million windfall, the Rangers boss needs to get to the bottom of what ails this Rangers team.
The problem needs fixing and it needs fixing before his side face their most difficult away fixtures of the season.
Ideally, he’ll patch things up before his side face their most difficult away fixtures of the season. Celtic, Hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen have all travelled to Ibrox in the first quarter of the season and, ideally, the champions would have used that advantage to build up a comfortable cushion.
Five weeks since they led Celtic by six points, however, the gap is now down to two and before the festive period is done, they travel to Parkhead, Tynecastle, Easter Road and Pittodrie. Even this early in the season, the margin for error is wafer thin. By common consent, Connor Goldson hasn’t been the same player this season.
Heading into the last six months of his contract, the Englishman seems to have one eye on the exit. Steven Davis, Allan McGregor, Scott Arfield, Leon Balogun, Jermain Defoe and Jon McLaughlin are others out of contract this summer.
Beyond that, the deals of Alfredo Morelos, Kent, Joe Aribo, Ryan Jack and Filip Helander lapse in 18 months with no imminent sign of renewals.
If players don’t fancy it any more, it makes sense to sell one or two in January and hand the manager cash to reinvest in serious defenders.
Steven Gerrard might find the idea of flogging big hitters hard to stomach.
Yet there are times when every manager has to swallow his pride and do whatever it takes to stem the leak of goals. Walter Smith proved that.