Storm clouds stuck over boss’s head in month without any competitive action

IN times of trouble, the saving grace for under-fire managers is normally the ever-changing news agenda of the digital age. No matter how grievous a defeat, the blizzard of fixtures in the modern-day football calendar offers shelter from the storm. The best way to nullify bad news is simply to ensure good news quickly follows it.

For Pedro Caixinha, however, what he had thought to be an unthinkable defeat to Proges Niederkorn on Tuesday presents more problems than simply the obvious lack of European football for Rangers this season.

Now without a competitive match until August 6 as a consequence of skipping the group stages of the Betfred Cup, the Portuguese is simply stuck with the storm clouds hanging over his head until the Premiership campaign kicks off at Motherwell.

Until positive results dictate otherwise, he is defined by the desperate loss to the minnows. While the capture of Graham Dorrans from Norwich City at least offers a glimmer of hope to a Rangers support that must, at times, feel like it is trapped in a recurring nightmare, Caixinha should need no one to tell him that a ninth summer signing will do little to quell the wrath of the rank and file following the worst European result in the club’s history.

If the vitriol aimed at Caixinha and his players as they left the Stade Josy Barthel in any way gave rise to a degree of self-pity, it’s worth remembering that managers have lost their jobs for far less.

He can consider himself fortunate that Rangers simply do not have the money nor the inclination to go down that road at this moment. That he must begin to repay the enormous faith placed in him the instant hostilities domestic resume is to state the blindingly obvious. His 13 matches in charge to date have already featured two defeats to Celtic, one of which was a 5-1 humiliation at home, a first Ibrox loss to Aberdeen since 1991 and Tuesday’s shambles in Luxembourg.

He can consider himself to have had his two strikes and then some.

The question of how to avoid an outright revolt among the Rangers support by hitting the ground running will now be consuming him and his backroom staff.

While the 28 days that separate them from the opener at Fir Park may threaten to drag, in one sense, there is not a nanosecond to waste if the ailing tanker is to be turned around.

Although the majority of Caixinha’s players returned for pre-season training on June 5, a steady stream of new recruits since that date — many delayed by red tape — are not yet at their optimum fitness levels.

Addressing this is the immediate priority.

Only one of the Mexican duo, Eduardo Herrera, was deemed fit enough to take a place on the bench against Progres.

Carlos Pena, reputedly a boxto-box midfielder, would have featured in the second round had Rangers qualified.

Colombian striker Alfredo Morelos, who did not sign until June 19, looked well short of fitness in the forgettable 45 minutes he was afforded on Tuesday. All will undoubtedly benefit from a few weeks’ hard labour.

The impending arrival of Bruno Alves should present fewer concerns.

The veteran defender played for Portugal in the semi-final of the Confederations Cup on June 28 and remained with the squad for its third-place play-off four days later. He had been pencilled in to feature in the second leg of the second qualifying round after a brief holiday and it should not take him too long to get up to full speed.

While the attainment of the required fitness levels can be gained through gruelling physical work, getting the necessary match sharpness in the coming four weeks may prove more taxing.

By this stage in the year, the pre-season schedules of clubs are generally set in stone. Accordingly, Caixinha badly needs to phone some friends and call in favours. Whether games take place behind closed doors, at Ibrox or further afield is a matter of supreme indifference provided the calibre of opponent is stellar.

Defining a shape and style that suits the assets at his disposal is also essential. Pressed about his banning of green boots from the training ground on Monday, Caixinha spoke of the need for a club to have a distinct culture and identity. He may be right but he would be better served ensuring his team has one first.

By the end of a gruesome 90 minutes in Luxembourg City, it was hard to fathom what the game plan was.

Shaping nominally with a 4-5-1, Caixinha played Jordan Rossiter and Ryan Jack behind Niko Kranjcar, with Kenny Miller and Candeias wide and Morelos up front.

This was flawed in many respects beyond the fact that the Colombian striker was evidently not fit enough to start the match.

For all the avalanche of criticism that inevitably came Rangers’ way, Rossiter and Jack were two of the few players who emerged with pass marks.

By and large, they did what they were asked to do — namely sit deep, protect the defence and offer the Croat a platform to play.

It was abundantly clear early on, though, that only one holding midfielder was required. Kranjcar has his qualities but a box-to-box player he is not.

The addition of the legs that Dorrans and Pena provide won’t come a moment too soon.

The most alarming aspect of the display was the lack of craft from the flanks. Candeias looked decent in the first leg but was anonymous in the 58 minutes he played in the return. Miller, as ever, gave everything he had out wide but is first and foremost a centre-forward.

With Kranjcar labouring in the hole and neither Lee Wallace nor James Tavernier, the fullbacks, knowing whether to hold their ground or press on, there was a palpable lack of shape and craft to the side. Throw in a central defence capable of losing two pitiful goals and we had arrived at the perfect storm.

Long before three minutes of injury time had been added on, Rangers resorted to lumping long balls into the box in the hope that Herrera could rescue them with a goal.

If this was Caixinha’s template for success, he would be strongly advised to change it quickly.

One saving grace for the man from Beja is that Celtic do not come into view again until the seventh game of the season on September 23.

It is imperative his side are still in touch by then.

The arrival of two experienced operators in Alves and Dorrans should give the spine of his team greater strength and experience, and Caixinha can only hope they have a positive influence on Dalcio, the Portuguese winger who, so far, looks like he’s in the wrong movie.

Signing such a large number of disparate players was always a high-risk strategy simply because teams tend to evolve over a period of time rather than arriving in a flash.

Generating that sense of togetherness is not easy but, whatever means the Portuguese uses to engender it, he at least has one crumb of comfort; after the absurdity that was Niederkorn, paradoxically, he now has time on his hands.

He would be better served ensuring his team has an identity first