McCall will Make Changes Tomorrow

[calscot 0]

I think McCall has the luxury of being able to take risks with his team selection as he's attempting a salvage job - and with the way the current first team are playing, he really has to shake things up.

 

It's like we've been regularly poisoned for the last 4 years and although that has stopped, we're still ill from the previous effects of all that poison. It's going to take a while to get better and while I think McCall is a reasonably competent physician, he's no miracle worker.

 

There really seems to be an extreme malaise among the senior players and it doesn't look like improving any time soon, and even bringing in free agents doesn't look like it could help, as they are not the types we need.

 

It seems to me that he has to dip into the U21 squad, kids are always happy to get their chance. The problem is that we've already played the top ones with plenty of grumbles about their ability - especially Aird, Hutton and Crawford. The one who passed muster has already been sold.

 

The Newcastle players with one exception have been nothing but a distraction that probably exacerbated the already low morale. So there's not that much choice. But anything has got to be better than what's happening on the park for the last 15 games or so.

 

The squad we have was hardly chosen - it was mostly taken from the available freebies in Scotland that would come and we merely took the best on paper. I can't imagine there was any out there that we missed that would be of an upper SPL standard, never mind Rangers standard. We have them by default rather than choice. The only players around that would enhance our first team, we didn't have the cash to pay for. We even lost our best young player to Brentford of all teams - no disrespect to them but this is Rangers we're talking about.

 

If you think McCoist was totally inept then you MUST be expecting a massive improvement now he's gone along with the dark cloud of the evil board removed. However, at the risk of personal abuse for not again agreeing with the extremists, I believe his failures have been highly exaggerated. (Again - just for the slow of wit, I don't believe he was a "good" manager, just mediocre, and toiling in the worst circumstances in our history.)

 

That means that how quickly we can be turned into a better team than the first half of the season depends on how good McCall is. As I've said, he doesn't come across as a miracle man or managerial genius. But he seems competent and intelligent and able to do a job. I think he's a level above Ally but not that big a step and so while I can see us competing again in a month or so, I can't see us sweeping all before us with fantastic football and cricket scores.

 

At best I think it's going to be the usual grinding out results that will not endear everyone to the new boss. I can't see how we can expect more until after the summer. To achieve the dream of great success, AND great football, AND great youth development, AND balance the books, we need some kind of genius that can do it in the cesspool of football that Scotland has become, with not much to spend, and with the pressure to get results from day one, every match day. I don't think McCall is that guy - although I'm not sure that guy exists.

[pete 2,499]

I think McCall has the luxury of being able to take risks with his team selection as he's attempting a salvage job - and with the way the current first team are playing, he really has to shake things up.

 

It's like we've been regularly poisoned for the last 4 years and although that has stopped, we're still ill from the previous effects of all that poison. It's going to take a while to get better and while I think McCall is a reasonably competent physician, he's no miracle worker.

 

There really seems to be an extreme malaise among the senior players and it doesn't look like improving any time soon, and even bringing in free agents doesn't look like it could help, as they are not the types we need.

 

It seems to me that he has to dip into the U21 squad, kids are always happy to get their chance. The problem is that we've already played the top ones with plenty of grumbles about their ability - especially Aird, Hutton and Crawford. The one who passed muster has already been sold.

 

The Newcastle players with one exception have been nothing but a distraction that probably exacerbated the already low morale. So there's not that much choice. But anything has got to be better than what's happening on the park for the last 15 games or so.

 

The squad we have was hardly chosen - it was mostly taken from the available freebies in Scotland that would come and we merely took the best on paper. I can't imagine there was any out there that we missed that would be of an upper SPL standard, never mind Rangers standard. We have them by default rather than choice. The only players around that would enhance our first team, we didn't have the cash to pay for. We even lost our best young player to Brentford of all teams - no disrespect to them but this is Rangers we're talking about.

 

If you think McCoist was totally inept then you MUST be expecting a massive improvement now he's gone along with the dark cloud of the evil board removed. However, at the risk of personal abuse for not again agreeing with the extremists, I believe his failures have been highly exaggerated. (Again - just for the slow of wit, I don't believe he was a "good" manager, just mediocre, and toiling in the worst circumstances in our history.)

 

That means that how quickly we can be turned into a better team than the first half of the season depends on how good McCall is. As I've said, he doesn't come across as a miracle man or managerial genius. But he seems competent and intelligent and able to do a job. I think he's a level above Ally but not that big a step and so while I can see us competing again in a month or so, I can't see us sweeping all before us with fantastic football and cricket scores.

 

At best I think it's going to be the usual grinding out results that will not endear everyone to the new boss. I can't see how we can expect more until after the summer. To achieve the dream of great success, AND great football, AND great youth development, AND balance the books, we need some kind of genius that can do it in the cesspool of football that Scotland has become, with not much to spend, and with the pressure to get results from day one, every match day. I don't think McCall is that guy - although I'm not sure that guy exists.

 

Unfortunately the fitness of the players says a lot against Ally. I believe the difference between the beginning of the season does not lie with us but with the other teams. In the beginning they thought they were playing the famous Glasgow Rangers and expected defeat so they sat back and gave us time on the ball. Then teams started to see if they closed us down we had no answer to it and things have gone from bad to worse with other teams gaining in confidence and us losing confidence. The fact that Ally always, and I say always, picked his team to stop the other team playing and did not take the bull by the horns to dictate play does not put him high on the managers scale for me. No not higher than a 2 out of 10 for me.

[Ser Barristan Selmy 222]

Kyle Hutton is 24 so really isn't a kid. Both he and Aird have played regularly and have contributed nothing, so quite rightly get criticised. Murdoch, Walsh and Gallagher in their fleeting appearances have received very positive praise.

 

PS - the only one 'slow of wit' is the guy who spent years defending him. McCoist didn't have one single positive attribute as a manager. He was far, far worse than 'mediocre'. Though mediocre certainly wasn't the word you were using a few months ago.

Edited March 17, 2015 by Ser Barristan Selmy

[gisabeer 409]

Our current squad will be scarred for life after being managed by Ally McCoist.

 

Many of them will struggle to resurrect their careers. They're damaged goods.

[calscot 0]

Kyle Hutton is 24 so really isn't a kid.

 

He's been playing in the team quite a bit, starting quite young, so shouldn't he be "developed" by now?

 

Both he and Aird have played regularly and have contributed nothing, so quite rightly get criticised.

 

I've never said they shouldn't be criticised but it goes against the notion that just playing guys from our youth ranks is an easy answer. It always seems that players that people haven't seen much are automatically considered much better than what the case may be.

 

Murdoch, Walsh and Gallagher in their fleeting appearances have received very positive praise.

 

Thanks for proving my point. I'm sure when the likelihood of at least one or two of them not becoming Rangers class is apparent, they will be highly criticised also.

 

PS - the only one 'slow of wit' is the guy who spent years defending him.

 

We get that your idea of slow witted is someone who doesn't agree with everything you say and you are sychophantic to those that do agree all the time, and then get all touchy feely with them when they happen to disagree with you on something. What was it someone said to you when you did this to them? "Spare the platitudes!" That was funny.

 

I think someone is slow witted when I tell them my opinion many, many times, as clearly as I can, with emphasis, and they still keep getting it completely wrong.

 

McCoist didn't have one single positive attribute as a manager.

 

Shouldn't you be adding, "in your opinion"? You seem to one of those people who thinks that they cannot possibly be wrong, even though you are proven so, time and again.

 

He was far, far worse than 'mediocre'. Though mediocre certainly wasn't the word you were using a few months ago.

 

Thanks again for proving my point - you still get my opinion wrong in this post despite my extended efforts. I've been saying he's mediocre or average for at least a couple of years. You could always show us evidence of what I said a few months ago.

 

That we've suddenly gone from 81.5% win rate to 25% since he left, pretty much backs me up, but then my opinions are evidence based. There is no-one on here who would take the blame for that kind of dramatic slump after they left a job - if there was a consistent regression then fair enough, but this is an incredibly abrupt change, that is too stark to be coincidental.

 

You've also got to wonder how McCall has gone from being considered a half-decent manager, to not much better than McCoist. That fits my view far better than yours.

 

It seems one quality he has is to take a load of crap, overpaid, uninterested players and get them to win 4 out of every 5 games.

[calscot 0]

Unfortunately the fitness of the players says a lot against Ally.

 

Ally brought in a fitness expert and so I'm not sure if he shoulders all the blame for any lack of fitness. I'm also not sure if there is THAT big a problem as the team have seen off other sides late in the game using fitness rather than finesse.

 

I also think there are a lot of fitness memes which stem from a general lack of understanding of what fitness is about. People thinking that players can train for a full working day every day without a rest. You can't get very fit without rest and there is a lot of knowledge now about the balance of fitness and "freshness" which leads to good form. You even get people saying the likes of Jig needs to lose 2 stone, when there is no chance a slim guy like him even has 2 stone of fat in total in his body composition.

 

For me, I think a lot of our problems stem from a poor attitude from the players. Should a good manager be able to do something about that? Certainly. But I think we're now seeing how hard that can be.

 

I believe the difference between the beginning of the season does not lie with us but with the other teams. In the beginning they thought they were playing the famous Glasgow Rangers and expected defeat so they sat back and gave us time on the ball. Then teams started to see if they closed us down we had no answer to it and things have gone from bad to worse with other teams gaining in confidence and us losing confidence.

 

Fair enough theory but to be really fair this only seems to have taken effect, just before Ally resigned with a lot of off field problems which led to that. You would expect a gradual change in our results, it's a huge step change around the time of his resignation. When you look at the first 20 games, we lost to Hearts and Hibs who don't conform to your theory and drew with seemingly our bogey team, Alloa. Take those teams out and we beat the rest. After that we lost to the bogey team and Queen of the South while Ally was in the process of leaving. After he left we lost again to Hibs and it then took until two months later to lose again to Hibs and Celtic whom we didn't have much of chance of winning. This is where it really started to slide with loss against Raith and where your theory starts to correlate more is in March. However, that's 2.5 months after Ally left.

 

Looking at it, your theory could work but only if the teams outside Hibs, Hearts (confident from the start), Celtic (mission impossible) and Alloa (bogey team), gained this confidence well after Ally was gone...

 

The fact that Ally always, and I say always, picked his team to stop the other team playing and did not take the bull by the horns to dictate play does not put him high on the managers scale for me. No not higher than a 2 out of 10 for me.

 

That obviously quite a subjective view which you're entitled to, but as I've been continually pointing out. I'm not trying to argue people into believing McCoist was great, I'm trying to show the worse he was, the faster we should improve.

 

My main point is that I don't think McCall is going to be massively better - something many are starting to agree with, but having to dance around their previous opinions of him to make it fit with the "McCoist is clueless" meme.

 

I see Ally as more of a 5/10 and McCall about 7/10 - so not THAT much improvement to be gained. McDowall seems to be the one with 2/10 although he didn't even want the job - but like the players, a lack of motivation is not accepted by Rangers fans.

 

So if for you Ally is 2 and McCall is say, only 6, then we should see really be seeing a massive improvement.

[MoodyBlue 0]

What exactly were McCall's 'credentials' for being selected as manager ?? He's not exactly had a great record as a manager previously.

[calscot 0]

I presume his main acheivements are finishing second twice in the SPL with Motherwell (without us).

Edited March 18, 2015 by calscot

[pete 2,499]

Ally brought in a fitness expert and so I'm not sure if he shoulders all the blame for any lack of fitness. I'm also not sure if there is THAT big a problem as the team have seen off other sides late in the game using fitness rather than finesse.

 

I also think there are a lot of fitness memes which stem from a general lack of understanding of what fitness is about. People thinking that players can train for a full working day every day without a rest. You can't get very fit without rest and there is a lot of knowledge now about the balance of fitness and "freshness" which leads to good form. You even get people saying the likes of Jig needs to lose 2 stone, when there is no chance a slim guy like him even has 2 stone of fat in total in his body composition.

 

For me, I think a lot of our problems stem from a poor attitude from the players. Should a good manager be able to do something about that? Certainly. But I think we're now seeing how hard that can be.

 

 

 

Fair enough theory but to be really fair this only seems to have taken effect, just before Ally resigned with a lot of off field problems which led to that. You would expect a gradual change in our results, it's a huge step change around the time of his resignation. When you look at the first 20 games, we lost to Hearts and Hibs who don't conform to your theory and drew with seemingly our bogey team, Alloa. Take those teams out and we beat the rest. After that we lost to the bogey team and Queen of the South while Ally was in the process of leaving. After he left we lost again to Hibs and it then took until two months later to lose again to Hibs and Celtic whom we didn't have much of chance of winning. This is where it really started to slide with loss against Raith and where your theory starts to correlate more is in March. However, that's 2.5 months after Ally left.

 

Looking at it, your theory could work but only if the teams outside Hibs, Hearts (confident from the start), Celtic (mission impossible) and Alloa (bogey team), gained this confidence well after Ally was gone...

 

 

 

That obviously quite a subjective view which you're entitled to, but as I've been continually pointing out. I'm not trying to argue people into believing McCoist was great, I'm trying to show the worse he was, the faster we should improve.

 

My main point is that I don't think McCall is going to be massively better - something many are starting to agree with, but having to dance around their previous opinions of him to make it fit with the "McCoist is clueless" meme.

 

I see Ally as more of a 5/10 and McCall about 7/10 - so not THAT much improvement to be gained. McDowall seems to be the one with 2/10 although he didn't even want the job - but like the players, a lack of motivation is not accepted by Rangers fans.

 

So if for you Ally is 2 and McCall is say, only 6, then we should see really be seeing a massive improvement.

 

It looked to me yesterday that there was a huge improvement in fitness and application. if you look at all the big games we have played Cal, Europe, cups important league games then although I have no written facts, from my memory, Ally has never had the motivation skills to get us to raise our game to win many if any of these games. time and again he has set the team up based on how he thought the opponents would play. i may not be totally objective in the matter as I never wanted Ally as manager in the first place but I saw nothing that made me think there was a good manager\coach waiting to blossom.

[MoodyBlue 0]

I presume his main acheivements are finishing second twice in the SPL with Motherwell (without us).

 

Personally I don't see that as anything special at all.