Bill Leckie - Rangers and Pedro Caixinha need a reality check

[ian1964 10,448]

Rangers and Pedro Caixinha need a reality check if they get carried away with win against Ross County, says Bill Leckie.

 

Gers are still a long way from where they need to be with a disjointed bunch of players left from the Mark Warburton era.

 

WE’RE all entitled to a senior moment now and again.

 

That brainfart feeling when we’re standing in the middle of a room, but can’t remember what the hell we went in there for.

 

For most of us, though, that’s all it is — a few seconds of standing there, feeling daft, with no one else any the wiser.

 

Not so poor Scott Fox. Because when ​HIS​ head froze, it was in his own box, in the middle of a crowded stadium, with 2,000 Rangers fans right behind him, live on TV.

 

An inexplicable blackout when dogs stopped barking at caravans and howled: “Keeper, man oooooonnnnn!”

 

Too late, though, came the cry.

 

In nips Alfredo Morelos, the empty net rustles and the Fox in a fix in his box is the loneliest man on the planet.

 

If he lives to be 100, he still won’t be able to explain why, having chased down a wonky passback and Cruyff-turned Morelos, he then took a breath, looked up the park for a target to boot the ball to.

 

And completely forgot the striker was behind him.

 

The only other goal like it I could recall in recent times was the one when Shay Given of Newcastle rolled the ball ahead of himself and Dion Dublin tip-toed in to steal it.

 

But at least in that instance, Dublin had been off the pitch and Given probably thought he wouldn’t be allowed back on.

 

Here, Fox simply went to sleep and committed the blunder to end all blunders on an afternoon that was littered with them — yet an afternoon when, had so many involved not been so fallible, might have turned into the dullest 90 minutes since the last World Paint-Drying Championships.

 

Ross County manager Jim McIntyre got it wrong from the off, sitting too deep, paying Rangers way too much respect and offering not an ounce of threat.

 

It was an error he seemed to admit by making his first change ten minutes before the break, by which time they were already a goal down.

 

Pedro Caixinha got it wrong when he left Niko Kranjcar out there even though he was so clearly towing a caravan, an error that could have proved costly after the Croatian got caught in possession to set County galloping forward for the goal that got them back in at 2-1.

 

As for ref Craig Thomson, he got two big calls wrong — first when he only booked home skipper Andrew Davies for leading with the elbow in a first-half aerial challenge against Kenny Miller; then when he let James Tavernier away with bundling Thomas Mikkelsen as he barrelled his way into the box soon after the break.

 

It was that kind of day in Dingwall — one dotted with precious little quality but liberally smeared with clumsiness and poor decision-making.

 

Still, as far as Caixinha was concerned, the quality was in the result and he can be happy and relieved in equal measure that his team ground it out.

 

But let’s be honest here, folks.

 

For long spells, they were once again about as convincing as Steve McClaren’s Dutch accent, a disjointed gaggle of survivors from the Mark Warburton era and unproven summer imports.

 

Morelos took his first goal well and was on the spot to cash in for his second, which is what he’s there for.

 

Daniel Candeias had some neat touches, Eduardo Herrera neatly tucked in the clinching third goal, and Graham Dorrans and Ryan Jack are reliable in midfield.

 

But Kranjcar looks as unhappy as he has done, the lesser-spotted Carlos Pena came on and puffed his way around the park at half-pace, while centre-back Fabio Cardoso doesn’t ​appear to be someone you’d want beside you when the shots and shells are flying.

 

Makes you wonder what someone with the presence and ability of Bruno Alves thinks as he comes to terms with his new life in a new county.

 

Now, I don’t know whether, at going on 36, he thought he was coming here for a pension and an easy life.

 

All in all, they are still a mile short of being where they want to be.

 

But, if so, the first few weeks of the season have surely proved otherwise.

 

And on the evidence of three weekends — which have thrown up a home defeat to Hibs, an iffy 0-0 with Hearts and now an away win made so much easier by a goalie’s nightmare — he might ​well have to be ​the barrier between a Rangers team in constant transition and yet another doing at the hands of their great rivals from across the city in a few weeks’ time.

 

You know, unless the caravan gets fitted with a turbo-charged engine before then…

[craig 5,199]

"Cruyff-turned Morelos" ??? Jeses wept Leckie, that is an extreme example of journalistic license !

[RANGERRAB 3,299]

Another poor attempt at journalism from wee silly, Billy Leckie

[StuGers 477]

That is the article written by someone clearly hurting.

[Tannochsidebear 2,320]

How can any editor pay for and print such a load of tosh? Surely anyone with the slightest whiff of journalistic integrity would throw that back and tell him to spend more than 2 mins next time and to actually say something interesting?

 

Leckie should stick to writing his own dating site profiles.

[the gunslinger 3,366]

Disjointed bunch of players left by warburton? Penalty for no foul outside the box?

 

Senior moments indeed you cretin.

 

 

[der Berliner 3,286]

A bit strange this. Blasting us managing Ross County away and telling us this is nothing. Yet, over in the East End the Perth Saints came close to even beat the Proclaimed Champions AT HOME and that's un-noteworthy. Well, coming to think of it, it ain't strange, just normal standard of journalism.

[Bill 13,717]

Having spent the best part of a lifetime working my balls off to build a business, I wish now I'd realised how easy it was to become a journalist in Scotland. Pulling a six figure salary for turning out contrived shite while half cut - I could have done that.

[ranger_syntax 3,795]

Having spent the best part of a lifetime working my balls off to build a business, I wish now I'd realised how easy it was to become a journalist in Scotland. Pulling a six figure salary for turning out contrived shite while half cut - I could have done that.

 

Why do people think that tabloid scribblers get 6 figure salaries?

[the gunslinger 3,366]

Dont they?