KRANJCAR IS WAY OUT OF HIS DEPTH
HEAVEN knows what Niko Kranjcar said to Mark Warburton as they looked into each other’s eyes during that three-hour Italian dinner enjoyed in New York over the summer. Kranjcar is, of course, a pretty fellow. Gentlemanly in person with a lovely, calming air. There would have been wine and candlelight, no doubt, creating a most seductive atmosphere when blended with the backdrop of a city constructed on dreams and possibility.
Perhaps he just slipped something into the Barolo. Whatever, it is looking quite some achievement that he managed to talk his way out of life in the knackers’ yard of the North American Soccer League into a two-year contract at Ibrox.
His presence at Rangers is only the start of it, though. Yesterday’s shambles at Celtic Park, for many, was simply a case of chickens coming home to roost.
There are questions to be asked about Warburton’s recruitment policy and what appears to be an inability to address evident, often longstanding, flaws within his team.
No one could have predicted it would go off the rails so spectacularly at Parkhead, but this rebuilding process at Rangers, a side capable of outplaying Celtic at Hampden five months ago, is in very serious trouble.
A trip to Pittodrie, and everything that brings, on their next away day could plunge it into crisis.
Certainly, that is a game Kranjcar should be nowhere near. Amongst several abysmal displays, his 45-minute cameo at Parkhead is worthy of special mention.
Player and manager have been irked by suggestions he is unfit. There was one moment, around the half-hour mark, in which he looked like he was pulling a cart as he attempted to track back.
That notwithstanding, he simply crumbled psychologically in the heat and dust of it all. For a player with such pedigree, it must be infuriating to arrive in the muchmaligned Scottish league and find you are not at the races.
The thing is, Kranjcar has not been at the sharp end for some time. It is tempting, rightly or wrongly, to look upon his decision to move to New York with his actress girlfriend as a sign that the old motivation maybe wasn’t quite there any longer. And when the motivation has gone, that, unlike physical condition, can be impossible to rebuild in the ultracompetitive world of professional sport.
Kranjcar has been part of a wholly dysfunctional midfield since signing for Rangers and is starting to look like the weakest link.
Josh Windass, outstanding on his return in the friendly with Linfield, justified his selection yesterday with his role in Rangers’ goal and his natural drive. The question is who to play beside him with Joey Barton failing, week after week, to live up to his own hype.
Kranjcar looked good against Linfield, too, but tired part-timers will afford you time and space. Against Celtic, he lost the plot, storming around trying to take people out when already on a booking for kicking Tom Rogic.
Warburton had to take him off. He looked lost, disorientated, unable to handle a game he could once have bossed charging on without him.
Something similar could be said of Philippe Senderos, but it is possible to have a little sympathy.
Just how did Rangers find themselves into a position where their main centre-half was being asked to make his debut in an Old Firm game after four months without a competitive outing?
The defensive pairing of Rob Kiernan and Danny Wilson has been a matter of concern since last season. It needed addressed long before the dying days of the transfer window, which saw the best part of £2million spent on another forward.
It was telling that, in January, Warburton, apropos of nothing, felt the need to place a statement on the club website defending Kiernan and insisting he had everything required to be an English Premier League player.
Not on this form. He was one of many posted missing when Moussa Dembele headed home a Scott Sinclair corner to make it 1-0. Another costly set-piece. Another torrid afternoon.
Senderos didn’t help, of course. The Swiss defender’s raising of a hand to prevent Dembele from going clean through on goal — earning a second yellow — was instinctive, perhaps explicable in some way.
The earlier booking that paved the way for him being ordered off was ridiculous, wrestling Dembele to the ground when the ball was nowhere close. He simply couldn’t handle the Frenchman. Foul play was all he had left.
Warburton’s decision to start with Kranjcar raised eyebrows because it put attack ahead of other considerations. When Kiernan went off injured with just over 18 minutes remaining, his decision to replace him with Harry Forrester and put Barton in a three-man defence was just bizarre.
Warburton was stunned when being asked about getting the sack after four games of the league campaign. Now that the fifth match has unfolded in such sobering fashion, he had better realise what he is dealing with.
Much more of this and it won’t be long before many of those who spent last term singing about The Magic Hat start calling for the black cap.