League Cup schedule worries Warburton as group stage hampers pre-season planning
MARK WARBURTON admits he faces a huge headache over how to plot a way through four competitive fixtures in nine days after the Betfred Cup schedule dealt to Rangers played further havoc with his pre-season plans.
The Ibrox manager, already a vocal sceptic of the League Cup revamp featuring a group stage in mid-July, was aghast to discover a slate of games — three selected for live television — that he considers an entirely unsatisfactory feature of the build-up to kicking off the top-flight campaign on August 6.
And in light of that crammed schedule coming so early in the summer, Warburton has pondered what the reaction might be if he fields a development squad team in one of their Group F games.
Rangers kick off the refurbished tournament at Motherwell on Saturday, July 16 then host Annan on the Tuesday and travel to East Stirlingshire on the Friday night of July 22. While other participants in the tournament round off their group campaigns on either July 30 or 31, Rangers have been slotted for a Monday night TV game at home to Stranraer on July 25.
‘I haven’t figured out yet how I’m going to play these games,’ admitted Warburton. ‘Who thinks four games in nine days makes any sense at all when we haven’t played any game before that — other than 45 minutes of football as part of a training game? And we talk about responsibility to the fans?
‘I think a lot of these games are televised. Who wins from that? If these were four games over 18, 19 days, whatever then I understand it. No problem at all. But the intensity of these games? If I put a Under19, Under-20 side watch the reaction from the media, the authorities, from the fans. I can’t play the same team on the 16th that I play on the 19th, the 22nd or the 25th.
‘I don’t have the power to change it. I just want what’s best for Rangers. And four games in nine days, I can’t think of a manager who would say that would suit him. Common sense tells you this is far from ideal. Then we play Burnley. How’s it going to work? How do I bed in the team, bed in a back four? I don’t know. It’s just us trying to get through that period of games without injury.’
The Rangers first-team squad jets out to the United States this weekend for an 11-day training camp in Charleston, South Carolina, culminating in a bounce game against Charleston Battery on Wednesday, July 6.
That match, against a club in the third tier league of the American soccer structure, will feature an entirely different Rangers team in each half as Warburton’s men play their first public game of pre-season.
Warburton (right) would then gradually increase the standard of opponent throughout July before peaking against English topflight new boys Burnley on Saturday, July 30 — a week before Hamilton visit for the Ladbrokes Premiership kick-off. However, travelling to Fir Park with an undercooked team before facing three part-time sides has blown those hopes apart.
He explained: ‘Any team would probably like a five or six game preseason programme building up in quality and intensity over a six-week period to prepare you as best as possible for the season ahead. We are going to play Charleston Battery for a warm-up game — and it is just 45 minutes for two separate XIs. Then the next game is Motherwell. The hardest one first.
‘So you go high-quality opposition then go down. Then face Burnley on the 30th which is a fantastic test for us. When you have that many games it’s play, recover, play, recover, play, recover. There’s no work being done. You’re not doing style of play. You’re not working on tactical aspects or your specific parts of your game.
‘I’m sure I’m not the only one saying this. There must be many other managers. I hope very much I won’t be alone. I know I won’t be because managers have to look after their own clubs. I can’t change it.
‘It’s a huge tournament and it’s part of the treble and Rangers with its history and tradition will want to compete for every competition they go into. I’m sure Mark McGhee and the other guys have the same problems. But what do we do? I will have to look at the squad. ‘We’re going out to the US on Monday with 25 players, four of whom could be keepers, and we’ll look at what we have. ‘At the end of the day, it’s about the players and giving them the best chance to perform. The better they perform, the more entertainment and the more fans that come and watch the games. You tell me if it’s revitalising the League Cup — or having the opposite effect?’ Warburton, who added former Scotland squad keeper Matt Gilks to his squad on Friday on a two-year deal, is using a successful pre-season strategy by returning to America’s south east. Last year’s hurried arrival at Rangers did not afford him the opportunity to take the squad abroad to prime them for domestic action. ‘We took Brentford away to Sarasota to the IMG Academy in Florida because we wanted to make sure they had better down time,’ he explained. ‘So we’ve chosen Charleston. It’s a great town, on the shore and while they are working hard three times a day and will have a tough game against a good Charleston Battery team, the idea is to take their mind off that with some good down time.’
The 2016/17 Ladbrokes Premiership, Championship, League One and League Two seasons all kick off on the weekend of Saturday, August 6.