Maverick boss must keep Gers’ Pittodrie hero Miller
Be a maverick.. but don’t gamble on a Miller deal
IN his short time on these shores already one thing is crystal clear, where Pedro Caixinha is concerned, it would seem prudent to expect the unexpected.
Never mind the late onslaught which, from nowhere, ended Aberdeen’s winning run on home soil yesterday.
All throughout his first few weeks at the helm of Rangers, Caixinha has shown scant regard for convention.
This is a coach who will do things his own way even if it means ignoring the apparently blindingly obvious and for so long as he’s celebrating wins like yesterday’s at Pittodrie then it will prove difficult to argue with his methods.
But as Caixinha made his way back from the north east he should not have been fooled into thinking this stunning 3-0 victory was a vindication solely of his own overtly maverick approach to management.
It was every bit as much a lesson of the crucial importance of keeping Kenny Miller within his ranks beyond the end of the current campaign.
It may seem all a little too uncomplicated. But even at the age of 37, Miller remains Rangers’ most reliable performer and the merciless manner in which he mowed down a shellshocked Aberdeen was further proof of his value to a squad that is hardly overloaded with natural leaders. Miller’s first goal was sublime. His second led to the ridiculous spectacle of Aberdeen collapsing in a calamitous four-minute spell which also saw Joe Dodoo hammer home a third for the visitors. If Caixinha saw this late blitz coming then he really might be some sort of visionary because it arrived at a time when his team was doing nothing more than hanging on in the hope of snatching a point. To the rest of us, it was Miller’s expertise which made the difference while also providing hard evidence that Caixinha will have a far better chance of making Rangers relevant again next season by securing the striker’s services on a new one-year deal. Then again, Professor Pedro is proving to be perfectly unpredictable in these early days of his reign as was evident again late on Saturday night.
Even as he was preparing to take his team to Pittodrie, he was busy engaging in the act of surprise as he added Jonatan Johansson to his coaching staff.
Caixinha spent a fairly sizeable chunk of his evening personally contacting the various unsuccessful candidates to inform them of his decision. It was all very amicable even if some of those who had failed to make the cut were left none the wiser with the oddly constructed explanation behind his reasoning. C’est la vie. All they really needed to know was they will not be playing any part in Caixinha’s backroom team. But the manager’s apparent difficulty in making himself understood could represent a problem for those who will be a part of his inner sanctum going forward, most importantly his players.
After Rangers dropped two points at home to Motherwell, Barrie McKay confessed he wasn’t entirely sure what he was meant to be doing out there after a chaotic change around at half-time, during which Caixinha replaced three of his back four while ripping up his initial tactical game plan.
At Kilmarnock on Wednesday night it wasn’t only McKay who looked perplexed by the instructions. There was little or no sign of any defined strategy to the way in which Rangers were going about their business. And this malaise was exacerbated by the manager’s decision to
announce his starting 11 more than 30 hours ahead of kick-off at Rugby Park, a decision which afforded Lee McCulloch all the time required to make adjustments to his own team and tactical blueprint.
Also, the stand-in Kilmarnock boss packaged this up and presented it to his own players as a sign of arrogance and disrespect.
Caixinha would argue otherwise but whether it was or was not is a moot point. All that mattered was that McCulloch was able to use it as a source of added motivation inside his own camp. All of which meant that not only did he have the Rangers line-up in advance but he also had his team talk delivered to the home dressing room on a plate. Caixinha was prepared to take this gamble and break with normal protocol because, in his view, it would embolden his own players. It was, he said, a sign of his faith in them to deliver a result regardless. And that would have been absolutely fine, had Rangers not dropped another two points on Kilmarnock’s plastic pitch.
That’s the crux of the matter where this Caixinha appointment is concerned. He is entirely entitled to manage this team the way he sees fit. In fact, it’s his prerogative to do exactly that.
He can rip up every rule book in the game and do away with all the game’s long-established perceived logic if he so wishes. But if it does not work – if it does not result in Rangers winning more points than they drop – then Caixinha’s own credibility will suffer accordingly.
If, on the other hand, Caixinha’s ultra-modern, unconventional approach leads to an upturn in performances and yields a consistent supply of victories then he will be rightly lauded for his fresh thinking and his innovative ideas.
Certainly, Emerson Hyndman looked utterly bewildered and crestfallen yesterday when he was hooked at the start of the second half to make way for Josh Windass.
Again, Miller’s late intervention ensured that the thinking behind this substitution was not more fully explored.
It was jeered at the time by the Rangers supporters who were also struggling to see the upside of removing the gifted young American from the fray.
But when it was done, Caixinha made his way up the tunnel to the sound of those same fans chanting his name.
All of which goes to prove they will happily watch Caixinha defy all manner of logic for so long as their team continues to prosper under the Portuguese.
But keeping Miller on board? Even Caixinha must see this for the ultimate no-brainer that it is.