Why Rangers Aren't Ready for Life in the Championship

[North Rd 2,860]

Why Rangers Aren't Ready for Life in the Championship

"The prospect of a big club like Hibs coming down worries me. No-one has a God-given right to win games. I've already said it will be a hell of a competitive and interesting league.

We don't know who will be coming down and there is a few twists and turns to come out of the next two or three weeks, which I'm looking forward to watching.

Hibs have been mentioned, but there are three or four of them down there fighting to avoid that play-off place, so it will make it really interesting for our league next year whoever plays in that play-off and ends up coming down."

-Ally McCoist – 21/04/2014

Well, now that we know exactly who Rangers will be facing, the harsh realities have begun to sink in and the scenario of playing several SPL-quality clubs next season is now the task Rangers face.

The simple question is ‘are Rangers ready?’.

There are three main aspects to a football team – form, personnel, and manager. We will look at these and analyse whether or not Rangers, as the team presently stands, are well-equipped to deal with the rigours of life in the Championship, or if Rangers supporters are in for a long and painful season.

Form:

If the tail-end of 2013/2014 and pre-season are anything to go on, the miserable answer here is no. After a flurry of decent form in January and early February, there has barely been a single performance worth remembering in around five and a half months. Obviously one of those months was the World Cup, so in four substantial months, including the second half of February, March, April, May and the pre-season thus far of July, it is fair to say Rangers’ displays have been consistently dreadful.

From Mohsni and McCulloch’s hapless partnership in defence, to the invisible Law and increasingly ineffective Black, before we move onto the exhausted Daly and pointless Shiels, we can see, performance-wise Rangers have been in disarray for effectively half a year. Even the mighty Lee Wallace, normally such a stalwart at the back for the Club, suffered himself a sub-par season overall as well.

And of course there is not forgetting David Templeton whose name is probably in the Oxford dictionary next to ‘inconsistent’. Occasionally brilliant, frequently anonymous.

There is, however, the distinct disclaimer that Lewis MacLeod, such an exquisite prospect in the middle of the park for Rangers, had a major injury blow tail end of January and did not return till pre-season. This did coincide with said loss of form but is it an appropriate excuse for seasoned SPL veterans like Nicky Law et al that the absence of 19-year old MacLeod decimated their own form? Can such experienced pros possibly ascribe any of the poor displays down to his loss rather than their own simple lack of form?

Personnel:

Major changes are taking place here. Already confirmed as back on Rangers’ books are former Ibrox strikers Kris Boyd and Kenny Miller, and they have been joined by St Mirren’s Darren McGregor and Hearts’ old boy Marius Zaliukas, while his former team mate Ismael Bouzid remains on trial.

Outgoing are keeper Scott Gallacher, with Ross Perry, Chris Hegarty, Emilson Cribari, Andrew Mitchell, and Andrew Little all joining him in departing Govan.

On Rangers’ ‘roster’, as the Americans would call it, the number of SPL-quality players clearly outnumbers those who are not. Boyd, Miller, Bell, Foster, Wallace, McCulloch, McGregor, Zaliukas, Law, Black, Templeton, Smith and Daly to name just 12 players are good examples of those who have vast experience of Scotland’s top flight. There are many more.

There are also a decent number of players in Rangers’ ranks too who are good enough to cope at that level too, such as MacLeod, McKay and McAusland.

So in terms of personnel, the Ibrox men are well-equipped. The only thing missing truly in terms of player is a top-class defensive mid. Rangers’ only attire there are Black, Peralta and Hutton.

Management:

This is the sticky area for sure. No one expects Rangers to play like Barcelona every week, but manager Ally McCoist really has struggled with basic formation and tactical issues ever since he took over. His debut season saw the Club rise to 15 points ahead of Celtic in the SPL, but that was mostly down to the ridiculous form of Steven Naismith who was effectively doing the job of three players in one. When he suffered his season-ending injury the lead was obliterated within a month. McCoist was unable to fix his absence, and since then Rangers’ performances have been mostly shocking, in truth.

Yes, the wins have completely outnumbered the draws and defeats, but if ever there was a case of ‘gritty win’ week-after-week McCoist’s Rangers are guilty. For the quality of player at his disposal, McCoist cannot squeeze out a convincing XI which consistently performs. Basic tactical errors and square pegs in round holes punctuates McCoist’s management style, and I will not even start on Lee McCulloch’s persistent presence in the team.

Rangers fans by and large respect McCoist and will always remember him as a truly incredible player for the Club, and for his loyalty in remaining at Ibrox during, frankly, deeply disturbing times for the Club. That he even drew publicly sympathy from then-adversary Neil Lennon shows just how much McCoist suffered for the club he loves.

But Ally has shown time and time again that he is not cut out for the role at Ibrox, and no matter how much bluenoses want him to succeed, it looks like a failing endeavour.

Overall:

In terms of personnel, yes, we have the tools at our disposal. They are SPL-quality in the whole and the Championship is not as high a standard as the SPL, so these players should be able to handle the challenges of next season. Alas the management and form side of things seem inextricably linked and are the Achilles’ Heel of Rangers. With McCoist unable to concoct a consistent formula which works that ineptitude filters through to the players whose form has taken aforementioned dramatic nosedive. The initial ‘trialist’ period was good, then the team struggled its way to January, with the occasionally bizarre outstanding display, such as the 8-0 over Stenhousemuir.

But McCoist has completely failed to blend together a team to produce anything like what their reputations would suggest, and overall the final verdict can only be that 2014/2015 will be a horrendous struggle.

I sincerely hope to eat my words

http://www.ibroxnois...or-life-in.html

Thoughts!

[TheMotor 2,208]

There is a simple answer in there for Ally with regards to form, management and performance. Have 2 players for every position. If one loses form or is injured, replace with the other. Ta-Da!

Chuck in a couple of utility players who can cover 3 or 4 positions each (in emergencies) and league should be strolled.

[there'sonlyoneamoruso 1,724]

I read that earlier and thought it was a fair assessment.

Ally needs to sort out his Plan A and Plan B. He also has to pick the right personnel for the job. And no-one is undroppable - even your mates!

[iain1712 336]

Always nice to start of the season off on a positive optimistic footing.

[Teamgers 1,214]

Always nice to start of the season off on a positive optimistic footing.

Just about to post something similar mate, lets see what happens and ffs try and be a bit more positive!

[BigDak 798]

Just about to post something similar mate, lets see what happens and ffs try and be a bit more positive!

Same here. It seems like folk were just waiting for the World Cup hangover to go away before they started Ally bashing again.

How about we all agree that the performances haven't exactly been inspiring but that real life is different from "on paper" facts and that's why we weren't playing like Brazil from the 70's. This season will be the one to judge McCoist.

[Bears r us 30,791]

It might be a good idea to wait until a couple of games into the season before getting too despondent or even over the moon.

[STEPPS BOY 73,890]

Find out within next fortnight what shape we are in..

Ready..

[OlegKuznetsov 10,816]

No one expects Rangers to play like Barcelona every week

[BlueSuedeSambas 53,775]

On paper we are more ready than any other club is.

We are more settled than either Hearts and Hibs who have had massive rebuilding jobs/overhauls this Summer and Falkirk don't have the squad depth needed to compete over a 36 game season.

The players we have brought in have made us a lot stronger in areas that needed to be addressed (there are still areas that need to be addressed) we have MacLeod back from injury and hopefully with a season at the club under their belts Moshni &nLaw will be a bit more settled and that will reflect in their performances.

This is a scrappy league so I don't think it's going to be free flowing football and comfortable wins, but I do think we should win it by at least 10 points mainly on the strength of our resources.

A good start is going to be key and we couldn't have been given a tougher start if we tried. McCoist has to get those games right to ease pressure on himself otherwise he's going to be in for a long season which he might not see out.

[Guest]

Ally doesnt do much to build confidence, he makes excuses for his team before the game even starts, thats not what a manager who believes in his squad does.

If we play the way we all know we can then we should have no problems winning the league, but weve come to expect long punts up the park and one half of acceptable football followed by one half just kicking the ball about

[Blue63 82]

A good coherent post, but once again I would like to see a few games before going into negative mode, all we ever seem to be at the moment is in negative mode. We've made a few signings, we're on the up lets leverage this.

[Bluepeter9 5,167]

Why Rangers Aren't Ready for Life in the Championship

"The prospect of a big club like Hibs coming down worries me. No-one has a God-given right to win games. I've already said it will be a hell of a competitive and interesting league.

We don't know who will be coming down and there is a few twists and turns to come out of the next two or three weeks, which I'm looking forward to watching.

Hibs have been mentioned, but there are three or four of them down there fighting to avoid that play-off place, so it will make it really interesting for our league next year whoever plays in that play-off and ends up coming down."

-Ally McCoist – 21/04/2014

Well, now that we know exactly who Rangers will be facing, the harsh realities have begun to sink in and the scenario of playing several SPL-quality clubs next season is now the task Rangers face.

The simple question is ‘are Rangers ready?’.

There are three main aspects to a football team – form, personnel, and manager. We will look at these and analyse whether or not Rangers, as the team presently stands, are well-equipped to deal with the rigours of life in the Championship, or if Rangers supporters are in for a long and painful season.

Form:

If the tail-end of 2013/2014 and pre-season are anything to go on, the miserable answer here is no. After a flurry of decent form in January and early February, there has barely been a single performance worth remembering in around five and a half months. Obviously one of those months was the World Cup, so in four substantial months, including the second half of February, March, April, May and the pre-season thus far of July, it is fair to say Rangers’ displays have been consistently dreadful.

From Mohsni and McCulloch’s hapless partnership in defence, to the invisible Law and increasingly ineffective Black, before we move onto the exhausted Daly and pointless Shiels, we can see, performance-wise Rangers have been in disarray for effectively half a year. Even the mighty Lee Wallace, normally such a stalwart at the back for the Club, suffered himself a sub-par season overall as well.

And of course there is not forgetting David Templeton whose name is probably in the Oxford dictionary next to ‘inconsistent’. Occasionally brilliant, frequently anonymous.

There is, however, the distinct disclaimer that Lewis MacLeod, such an exquisite prospect in the middle of the park for Rangers, had a major injury blow tail end of January and did not return till pre-season. This did coincide with said loss of form but is it an appropriate excuse for seasoned SPL veterans like Nicky Law et al that the absence of 19-year old MacLeod decimated their own form? Can such experienced pros possibly ascribe any of the poor displays down to his loss rather than their own simple lack of form?

Personnel:

Major changes are taking place here. Already confirmed as back on Rangers’ books are former Ibrox strikers Kris Boyd and Kenny Miller, and they have been joined by St Mirren’s Darren McGregor and Hearts’ old boy Marius Zaliukas, while his former team mate Ismael Bouzid remains on trial.

Outgoing are keeper Scott Gallacher, with Ross Perry, Chris Hegarty, Emilson Cribari, Andrew Mitchell, and Andrew Little all joining him in departing Govan.

On Rangers’ ‘roster’, as the Americans would call it, the number of SPL-quality players clearly outnumbers those who are not. Boyd, Miller, Bell, Foster, Wallace, McCulloch, McGregor, Zaliukas, Law, Black, Templeton, Smith and Daly to name just 12 players are good examples of those who have vast experience of Scotland’s top flight. There are many more.

There are also a decent number of players in Rangers’ ranks too who are good enough to cope at that level too, such as MacLeod, McKay and McAusland.

So in terms of personnel, the Ibrox men are well-equipped. The only thing missing truly in terms of player is a top-class defensive mid. Rangers’ only attire there are Black, Peralta and Hutton.

Management:

This is the sticky area for sure. No one expects Rangers to play like Barcelona every week, but manager Ally McCoist really has struggled with basic formation and tactical issues ever since he took over. His debut season saw the Club rise to 15 points ahead of Celtic in the SPL, but that was mostly down to the ridiculous form of Steven Naismith who was effectively doing the job of three players in one. When he suffered his season-ending injury the lead was obliterated within a month. McCoist was unable to fix his absence, and since then Rangers’ performances have been mostly shocking, in truth.

Yes, the wins have completely outnumbered the draws and defeats, but if ever there was a case of ‘gritty win’ week-after-week McCoist’s Rangers are guilty. For the quality of player at his disposal, McCoist cannot squeeze out a convincing XI which consistently performs. Basic tactical errors and square pegs in round holes punctuates McCoist’s management style, and I will not even start on Lee McCulloch’s persistent presence in the team.

Rangers fans by and large respect McCoist and will always remember him as a truly incredible player for the Club, and for his loyalty in remaining at Ibrox during, frankly, deeply disturbing times for the Club. That he even drew publicly sympathy from then-adversary Neil Lennon shows just how much McCoist suffered for the club he loves.

But Ally has shown time and time again that he is not cut out for the role at Ibrox, and no matter how much bluenoses want him to succeed, it looks like a failing endeavour.

Overall:

In terms of personnel, yes, we have the tools at our disposal. They are SPL-quality in the whole and the Championship is not as high a standard as the SPL, so these players should be able to handle the challenges of next season. Alas the management and form side of things seem inextricably linked and are the Achilles’ Heel of Rangers. With McCoist unable to concoct a consistent formula which works that ineptitude filters through to the players whose form has taken aforementioned dramatic nosedive. The initial ‘trialist’ period was good, then the team struggled its way to January, with the occasionally bizarre outstanding display, such as the 8-0 over Stenhousemuir.

But McCoist has completely failed to blend together a team to produce anything like what their reputations would suggest, and overall the final verdict can only be that 2014/2015 will be a horrendous struggle.

I sincerely hope to eat my words

http://www.ibroxnois...or-life-in.html

Thoughts!

Basically another Ally Oot thread - oh goody! Lets rehash the arguments ad-infinitum OR...

try something novel - like backing the team AND management!

wrt to my response - just go visit another Ally Oot thread - although I'll probably get sucked in to responding on this thread!

[JR 1,480]

Fuckin' bring em on!

[Courtyard Bear 41,357]

A pretty fair reading of the situation, I think we will win the league but it won't be the canter that some believe it will be.

As for Ally he's not going to suddenly become a great manger overnight he is what he is mediocre, either get rid or get used to the way we play football being the norm for the foreseeable future.

[Courtyard Bear 41,357]

Basically another Ally Oot thread - oh goody! Lets rehash the arguments ad-infinitum OR...

try something novel - like backing the team AND management!

wrt to my response - just go visit another Ally Oot thread - although I'll probably get sucked in to responding on this thread!

The fact you can't see that as a fair assessment of our situation without jumping on the its just an Ally bashing thread bandwagon kind of says it all.

I support Rangers the team not the manger or the board it's about some on here did likewise.

[KingKirk 25,633]

Within the first week, well see how ready we are, I predict we are more than ready.

[RedRob72 6]

Been patient with McCoist even after the shambles of Easter Road last Spring for example. A real watershed moment though and one that Ally cant afford a repeat performance of this coming season..

[Guest]

Basically another Ally Oot thread - oh goody! Lets rehash the arguments ad-infinitum OR...

try something novel - like backing the team AND management!

wrt to my response - just go visit another Ally Oot thread - although I'll probably get sucked in to responding on this thread!

You know what youre good at? Saying "Allys great!" "Ally will do the job!" "The Ally out crew dont have a clue" then backing away form the argument without actually getting involved in it, you have no reason to think that Ally is good enough but you just shout the same things over and over and act like anyone who criticizes Ally is an idiot, when we all have a reason we want Ally out when you have no reason you want him to stay, or at least ive never seen you provide a reasonable one.

[bombaybadboy08 15,660]

Fair article although I don't believe we will struggle as much as it makes out.

I think it will be more of what we've already witnessed on this journey, scrappy, shite football with us being more consistent than everybody else.

We will probably lose games but we will still emerge victorious come the end of the season.

The shite football won't change until Ally is away but I genuinely can't see anyone other than us raising that trophy.

Even if Hearts and Hibs get some consistency going they will bottle it when it comes to the business end of the season.

[The Godfather 71,874]

"The prospect of a big club like Hibs coming down worries me."

More gold from McCoist.

[Big Al 55 9,248]

Why Rangers Aren't Ready for Life in the Championship

"The prospect of a big club like Hibs coming down worries me. No-one has a God-given right to win games. I've already said it will be a hell of a competitive and interesting league.

We don't know who will be coming down and there is a few twists and turns to come out of the next two or three weeks, which I'm looking forward to watching.

Hibs have been mentioned, but there are three or four of them down there fighting to avoid that play-off place, so it will make it really interesting for our league next year whoever plays in that play-off and ends up coming down."

-Ally McCoist – 21/04/2014

Well, now that we know exactly who Rangers will be facing, the harsh realities have begun to sink in and the scenario of playing several SPL-quality clubs next season is now the task Rangers face.

The simple question is ‘are Rangers ready?’.

There are three main aspects to a football team – form, personnel, and manager. We will look at these and analyse whether or not Rangers, as the team presently stands, are well-equipped to deal with the rigours of life in the Championship, or if Rangers supporters are in for a long and painful season.

Form:

If the tail-end of 2013/2014 and pre-season are anything to go on, the miserable answer here is no. After a flurry of decent form in January and early February, there has barely been a single performance worth remembering in around five and a half months. Obviously one of those months was the World Cup, so in four substantial months, including the second half of February, March, April, May and the pre-season thus far of July, it is fair to say Rangers’ displays have been consistently dreadful.

From Mohsni and McCulloch’s hapless partnership in defence, to the invisible Law and increasingly ineffective Black, before we move onto the exhausted Daly and pointless Shiels, we can see, performance-wise Rangers have been in disarray for effectively half a year. Even the mighty Lee Wallace, normally such a stalwart at the back for the Club, suffered himself a sub-par season overall as well.

And of course there is not forgetting David Templeton whose name is probably in the Oxford dictionary next to ‘inconsistent’. Occasionally brilliant, frequently anonymous.

There is, however, the distinct disclaimer that Lewis MacLeod, such an exquisite prospect in the middle of the park for Rangers, had a major injury blow tail end of January and did not return till pre-season. This did coincide with said loss of form but is it an appropriate excuse for seasoned SPL veterans like Nicky Law et al that the absence of 19-year old MacLeod decimated their own form? Can such experienced pros possibly ascribe any of the poor displays down to his loss rather than their own simple lack of form?

Personnel:

Major changes are taking place here. Already confirmed as back on Rangers’ books are former Ibrox strikers Kris Boyd and Kenny Miller, and they have been joined by St Mirren’s Darren McGregor and Hearts’ old boy Marius Zaliukas, while his former team mate Ismael Bouzid remains on trial.

Outgoing are keeper Scott Gallacher, with Ross Perry, Chris Hegarty, Emilson Cribari, Andrew Mitchell, and Andrew Little all joining him in departing Govan.

On Rangers’ ‘roster’, as the Americans would call it, the number of SPL-quality players clearly outnumbers those who are not. Boyd, Miller, Bell, Foster, Wallace, McCulloch, McGregor, Zaliukas, Law, Black, Templeton, Smith and Daly to name just 12 players are good examples of those who have vast experience of Scotland’s top flight. There are many more.

There are also a decent number of players in Rangers’ ranks too who are good enough to cope at that level too, such as MacLeod, McKay and McAusland.

So in terms of personnel, the Ibrox men are well-equipped. The only thing missing truly in terms of player is a top-class defensive mid. Rangers’ only attire there are Black, Peralta and Hutton.

Management:

This is the sticky area for sure. No one expects Rangers to play like Barcelona every week, but manager Ally McCoist really has struggled with basic formation and tactical issues ever since he took over. His debut season saw the Club rise to 15 points ahead of Celtic in the SPL, but that was mostly down to the ridiculous form of Steven Naismith who was effectively doing the job of three players in one. When he suffered his season-ending injury the lead was obliterated within a month. McCoist was unable to fix his absence, and since then Rangers’ performances have been mostly shocking, in truth.

Yes, the wins have completely outnumbered the draws and defeats, but if ever there was a case of ‘gritty win’ week-after-week McCoist’s Rangers are guilty. For the quality of player at his disposal, McCoist cannot squeeze out a convincing XI which consistently performs. Basic tactical errors and square pegs in round holes punctuates McCoist’s management style, and I will not even start on Lee McCulloch’s persistent presence in the team.

Rangers fans by and large respect McCoist and will always remember him as a truly incredible player for the Club, and for his loyalty in remaining at Ibrox during, frankly, deeply disturbing times for the Club. That he even drew publicly sympathy from then-adversary Neil Lennon shows just how much McCoist suffered for the club he loves.

Agree with every word up to that point.

[Wearethepeople72 1,845]

We will win the league relatively comfortably. There are question marks over the management team but with the squad we have, I expect that will win it by about 15 points.

[Rickshaw77 287]

Probably the best thing to happen to Rangers this season is Hibs and Hearts coming down to the championship.

For the last 2 seasons Rangers have had zero competitive edge in the league at all.

Players could show up play at 25% and still get an easy win this attitude probably cost us in the cups just like it cost Celtic in the cups as well.

[G.E.C. 18,756]

Not looking forward to the Hearts game tbh. Their midfield can easily over run us.