Out of focus by Peter Ewart

[barca72 440]

From CRO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10 March 2013 Out of focus by Peter Ewart | Contributor

 

 

 

Itâ??s said that if you havenâ??t got anything good to say then say nothing. When it comes to our manager and the way our team has performed (or not) I have pretty well kept to that adage this season. Excuses could be made - exceptional circumstances, culture shock all that. However we are way beyond that stage. The fact is that the football being played is remarkably poor and results are now suffering.

 

The 2-1 loss to Annan marks one of, if not the worst result in Rangers history. That is some claim, but it is hard to think of a parallel. The full time team supposed to be pushing on for the league title just didnâ??t. Annan outplayed us, outthought us, wanted it more, and it could have been far more comfortable for the visitors.

 

The result itself has been the catalyst for a backlash but it is far from the first dismal performance of the year. Supposedly professional players havenâ??t been interested, discipline and leadership have been lacking, and the buck has to stop with the manager.

 

We have been tactically out thought on a regular basis in SFL3. On top of that our players do not look fitter than our part-time opponents. We have played one up front and the long ball game far too often.

Ally has played players out of position on a regular basis. Andy Little, who has continued to bang in goals wherever he has been played, has been played wide right for far too many games. Against Annan, Little was started on the left wing, into the center when Shiels went down, then moved to the right to accommodate a slack Sandaza. A noticeably unfit Jig was played through the middle and despite needing goals, Little, our leading scorer and on a great run of form, was pushed to the wings. An absolute waste.

 

And he was not the only player: Kal Naismith, predominantly left footed, continues to start games on the right hand side where he looks uncomfortable and frankly a position he is unable to play. It is crazy.

Black appears to be unable to be dropped despite a string of under-par performances, and Shiels and Sandaza made it back on the park ahead of players who merited inclusion ahead of them. There is a pandering towards â??seniorâ?? players. Do we have to play them because we pay them so much rather than how they are playing? If Ally feels he does, and that is what it looks like, then we have a problem.

 

There is a general lack of cohesion and discipline in the side. Take the East Stirlingshire game last week. Players were arguing with each other. Complacency was rife. There was arguing over who would take free kicks. There were pointless floated corners drifted into no manâ??s land between the penalty spot and 18 yard line. Do we practice taking and defending set pieces? We should be much better at both, certainly in comparison to our, again, part-time opposition.

 

I donâ??t understand what is happening on the training ground, all those decisions should already have been made by the manager and stuck to without question by the players â?? why is our preparation and execution apparently so slack?

 

As we were losing to Annan, East Stirlingshire were hammered 9-1 by Stirling Albion. A freak result? Almost certainly, but given the wage bill we have (second only to Celtic in Scotland) in what is a part-time amateur league it is what we should have been threatening to do in a lot of games this season â?? win by double figures. We havenâ??t even been close. 5-1 at home and 6-2 away are our biggest league wins. Clean sheets like hens teeth too.

 

It is all too easy to slate the poor performances but what can we do about it? Some of the answers are sitting on the substitutes bench and in the Swifts line-ups. We should also be looking at what has not worked. Signing SPL players for the lower leagues has not proved a success. Black, Sandaza, Shiels, Templeton have all underperformed to a greater or lesser degree. We have not had leadership from them, nor have we had value for money, perhaps with the exception of the inconsistent Templeton. For senior players there are unfortunately no leaders amongst them. McCulloch flatters to deceive in that department and whilst Wallace can lead by example at times, though he is not a â??talkerâ?? or natural motivator. We are crying out for leadership down the spine of the team.

 

We have had glimpses of some of the younger players, and Fraser Aird and Robbie Crawford have performed when played. Lewis Macleod was a revelation prior to picking up his unfortunate injury. And you suspect that there are more waiting in the wings â?? Mitchell, Murdoch and others. Weâ??ll maybe even get to see Gasparotto. Yet the stock reaction from Ally to the horrendous Annan performance is to say that it highlights the need to strengthen the team and squad. It simply doesnâ??t. It highlights the inability to bring the best out of the current squad. We have no need to buy more mediocre players from around the world. Cribari and Argyriou should be case in point for that.

 

And with the financial state the club is in we should not be signing high wage â??bigâ?? name options for the lower leagues. Itâ??s nonsensical. We have talent already at the club that should be nurtured ahead of bringing in expensive and mediocre foreign and journeyman players. Some experience and leadership is needed but should be very carefully selected. The club can ill-afford to waste money on fringe signings such as Kevin Kyle and the like.

 

Itâ??s not what the fans want either. Season ticket renewals are not far away and the club would do well to take heed. Now is the time to give youth time to develop, play a passing game and make the product on the park attractive all round. We are miles away from that currently. Season ticket prices will be going up, but Green should now realise that it isnâ??t â??box officeâ?? individual players that are needed to justify the hike.

 

We want a team that plays for each other, gives its all and plays for the jersey. And that should be a damned sight cheaper than the current route we have embarked on. Just because the registration embargo will come to an end doesnâ??t mean the club should rush out and buy all round them. Letâ??s take stock of what we need for whatever league set-up we end up in next year and that should mean limited and focused transfer activity.

 

Of course we will win SFL3. If we donâ??t I am leaving the country. But as it stands if Queenâ??s Park, an amateur side, win on Tuesday night, they will only be 14 points behind us. Weâ??ll be less than five wins better than them in mid-March. Is that good enough? We havenâ??t been disciplined or professional enough. The league should have been out of sight a while ago but we havenâ??t been up to it. The manager and coaching staff have been at fault. Change in tactics, attitude and application is needed, and the sooner the better. Certainly Ally will always be a Rangers legend, but itâ??s hard to see him making it into the top bracket of Rangers managers if a massive overhaul is not undertaken, and soon.

[djbroxybear 0]

Could be 14 points ahead by tuesday if Queens Park keep playing the way they are and we don't improve our lead could be chopped more. I was looking to win this league by 20 points or more it.s not good enough.

[chilledbear 16]

I don't know who the guy is, but it's pretty well spot on.

[RANGERRAB 3,299]

one of the biggest areas of concern in the team IMO is MF. We lost Ness, Davis, Edu, McCabe etc and brought in one MF player - Black who to me is simply a ball winner who sits in front of the back four not a box to box midfielder as Ally & his coaches seem to think. Granted young McLeod has been excellent mostly but I believe we're expecting too much of a teenager in his first season. Hutton simply isn't good enough and Crawford hasn't really played enough games. Other than that the midfield has been made up also at times of other players playing out of position.

That summarised is a midfield well short of what's required behind which any back four would struggle. I simply never understood why Ally brought in just one MF player before the transfer window shut last August when he lost just about all of them from the previous season. That was asking for trouble

[lenzEK 0]

one of the biggest areas of concern in the team IMO is MF. We lost Ness, Davis, Edu, McCabe etc and brought in one MF player - Black who to me is simply a ball winner who sits in front of the back four not a box to box midfielder as Ally & his coaches seem to think. Granted young McLeod has been excellent mostly but I believe we're expecting too much of a teenager in his first season. Hutton simply isn't good enough and Crawford hasn't really played enough games. Other than that the midfield has been made up also at times of other players playing out of position.

That summarised is a midfield well short of what's required behind which any back four would struggle. I simply never understood why Ally brought in just one MF player before the transfer window shut last August when he lost just about all of them from the previous season. That was asking for trouble

 

To be fair to Ally I'm not convinced that was really down to him. He was on record saying he felt we needed four or five bodies as the transfer window was closing and we ended up with Templeton only. I think he genuinely felt that Green would have delivered a few more signings.

[RANGERRAB 3,299]

To be fair to Ally I'm not convinced that was really down to him. He was on record saying he felt we needed four or five bodies as the transfer window was closing and we ended up with Templeton only. I think he genuinely felt that Green would have delivered a few more signings.

 

We've a squad which has too many forwards & wide players and not enough midfielders & defenders. That's bad whichever way you look at it

[lenzEK 0]

I agree but I think it is a symptom of the circumstances we found ourselves in at the last transfer window. I don't think for a minute that McCoist didn't recognise that the midfield area was short in numbers and quality.

[bluebear54 0]

This is Coisty's second season in charge.

We're all too aware of what we've been through in the past 13-14 months.

I'm still not sure how to put last season's European results into context.

We had the squad, and we should have easily got into the group stages of the CL.

That we didn't even make the EL was shocking.

It doesn't sit right with me to put Ally down. However it doesn't sit right with me to see Rangers going nowhere.

[Darthter 542]

We've a squad which has too many forwards & wide players and not enough midfielders & defenders. That's bad whichever way you look at it

 

it's a good thing if your looking to play a lot of attacking play....unfortunately we're not doing that!!!

 

I believe that we have a decent (to good) playing squad. There is a lot of talent there which need developing. I can see that when the transfer embargo is lifted, the club will probably revert back to normal business - "let's buy in players, rather than develop our own". I can see the likes of Aird & possibly McKay/Crawford disappearing. Hemmings will be offski as well. We will bring in more SPL "quality" players and put them on good wages & probably still only get mediocre results. Play will be more of the same - "Pitch is in poor condition, we have to play a high ball". Our midfield will be too busy trying to win the ball back after an upfield punt, that they won't be able to do anything creative/productive.......key defensive players will still be trying to master "Hello, my name is xxxx" in english, rather than "watch out for that running coming in at the back post".......Our keeper will end up with RSI in his wrist from constantly waving players up the pitch.

 

We don't have the best squad, we all know that, but it should still be performing a helluva lot better that it has been. The team are not playing as a team, and that is something only McCoist can rectify!!!