GET YOUR HEAD IN RIGHT PLACE
Ibrox side need more consistent efforts to challenge
BIG game players. Every manager wants a squad full of them. Just think about how often you’ve heard a proud coach boast about guys who, in the toughest and most hyped fixtures on the card, invariably perform at peak levels.
But spare a thought for the plodders. The professionals who get the unglamorous jobs done. The footballers who genuinely adhere to the old double bluff about treating Hamilton Accies no differently to Atletico Madrid.
Rangers could do with a few more of their ilk. Or else all the impressive results at the top end of the card will continue to be little more than a source of bewildered frustration to fans.
As Ibrox supporters saunter into the winter break feeling a great deal happier about their much-maligned team’s ability to stand toe-to-toe with the best that Scottish football has to offer, they cannot help but wonder about those frequent stumbles against the ‘other guys’.
Beating Aberdeen back-to-back, turning over Hibs and Hearts, leaving Celtic Park rueing their luck and lack of finishing touch, all of these games say something about attitude and aptitude of a group assembled at no little cost.
Yet anyone watching the red-blooded frenzy and zeroed-in focus produced in those main events is inevitably led to the same question.
Where on earth has this competitiveness and competence been against Dundee, Hamilton Accies, St Johnstone and Kilmarnock?
Former Rangers midfielder Alex Rae believes it’s a problem that Graeme Murty must solve. Or else. And he sees a local example that his old club can follow.
‘Rangers won’t be in a position to challenge unless they win these games against the so-called smaller teams,’ Rae told Sportsmail.
‘Look at how good Aberdeen are. They have a mindset — one they’ve had for several years now. Yes, obviously they haven’t beaten Celtic and that’s been seen as a big problem for them. But the Dons consistently beat the rest. And that keeps them up there. So Rangers managing to turn around the performances at home, managing to avoid losing away to Kilmarnock and things like that, would give them an opportunity to bridge that gap in the league. ‘And then you build towards that consistency. In that, Celtic remain the benchmark, if you look at the amazing undefeated run they had. ‘When you play against the top five teams in the league, if you like, the whole mentality of the game is different. ‘They are more inclined to come and attack you, for starters. So there is a different approach to it. I think the home form has been a problem, which says something as well. So many of the big results they have managed to get this season — Hibs, Hearts and one of the Aberdeen wins, as well as Celtic at the weekend — have been away from home.
‘What they need to do now is learn to play with the same intensity at home or away.
‘If they can get that, it will allow them to over-run teams and dominate games.
‘I was at the Celtic game and, when you look at the second-half performance from Rangers, there was just so much energy.
‘Getting the full-backs forward, going at Celtic, they were pretty impressive.
‘You have to do exactly the same at home — because that’s where the bread and butter is.
‘Playing with that intensity will definitely give you a better chance of getting results against the so-called smaller teams.’
Footballers rightly bristle at any suggestion that they’re not ‘up for’ a particular fixture. That cuts to the quick, that inferred insult.
There are things that Murty can do, however, beyond beating his chest and feeding the starting XI raw meat. There are elements of the playing style that can be tweaked in order to get the right results.
‘I think it’s about attitude — but there is also a football side to it,’ said Rae.
‘I know that they like their passing brand of football. But it has to be more productive.
‘Sometimes that means getting it from middle to front a little quicker. That enables players who are best in transition, as you saw at the weekend, to counter-attack effectively.
‘They’ve got speed in that team. Alfredo Morelos can do it, Josh Windass is obviously quick — and Daniel Candeias managed to do it pretty well at the weekend. They then need the midfield to back that up.
‘Going forward, they can take a bit of positivity from the result. As much as it’s a positive point at Parkhead, there is still a long way to go, in terms of where they want to be.
‘They’re still not at a stage where they can compete and beat Celtic. But they can take hope from the weekend.
‘I’ve seen some people trying to talk the result down. Pundits and ex-players are talking down the significance of a good point for Rangers.
‘But not one of them, to a man, expected Rangers to get even that much out of the weekend. When you get a positive result like that, you have to enjoy it.
‘But — and this is important — the Rangers players have to realise that they’re still only halfway towards where they need to be.
‘They’ll want to go and beat Celtic. That’s the ultimate goal for Rangers as a club.
‘But let’s not diminish the achievement of the weekend. Because not many teams have gone there and outplayed Celtic for an entire second half.’