Is Pedro Caixinha a dead man walking?

[Virtuoso 27,180]

Quote

 

Is Pedro Caixinha a dead man walking? 

Rangers'  Luxembourg loss was a new low, and leaves their manager of only four months in a precarious positionThey have been liquidated and demoted to Scotland's fourth tier in their recent history, but last Tuesday in Luxembourg represented a new low for Rangers. Their 2-0 defeat to Progres Niederkorn, who had never won a European game before, is the worst recorded by a Scottish side - never mind a Rangers one. The Scottish Cup loss at Berwick 50 years ago seems a minor setback by comparison.

Pride came before the fall, too, in some ill-timed hubris from Dave King, their chairman. His recent claim that Celtic had won two titles directly against Rangers, rather than six consecutively, was silly enough when he said it, but became particularly preposterous in the aftermath.

Instead, Celtic have asked whether the four league titles Rangers won while using Employee Benefit Trusts to avoid tax between 2001 and 2010 should count after the Supreme Court last week ruled in favour of HMRC in that long-running case. That will be one for the football authorities to consider, but more pertinent going forward is that despite appointing Pedro Caixinha to replace Mark Warburton and allowing him to sign nine new players for 10m, Rangers appear further away from winning one again in the future.

They returned to pre-season training early to target a place in the Europa League group stage, more hubris given they hadn't played in Europe for six years, and now face a month's wait for the Scottish season to start. Caixinha is denied the usual opportunity of a manager whose credibility is in question - to hit back with a string of positive results. The 46-year-old must wait until Sunday August 6, when his side go to Motherwell on the opening weekend of the Premiership season, to provide evidence he can reduce the 39-point chasm to Celtic last season.

Anything between now and then will be sophistry on his part or from the Rangers players, who will no doubt appear in a series of penitent press conferences in the hope of shifting season tickets. The loyalty of their supporters is something that Rangers have relied on during their recovery from liquidation, but how much longer can it last?

Nearly 49,000 fans turned up to see the first leg against Progres and it was let down, as they toiled to a 1-0 victory. While some interpreted that as Rangers merely running off some rust, a familiar problem for Scottish sides in these early European qualifiers, it was clearly not out of their system before the debacle in the Grand Duchy.

The goals they lost were lamentable, particularly the decisive second when a free-kick from Olivier Thill was allowed to go straight across Rangers' box and in at the far post. They hit the woodwork three times through Niko Kranjcar, Josh Windass and Kenny Miller, but an away goal would not come. Miller, at 37, was again their best player and neither Caixinha's new arrivals nor those signed on Warburton's watch could stop the humiliation unfolding.

Heaped on top of the 5-1 defeat at Ibrox in April, Rangers' heaviest loss to Celtic at their own ground, it does not amount to an impressive body of work thus far from Caixinha or justify his appointment ahead of more persuasive candidates closer to home. It feels like one of those calls where a board try to be too clever, look too far into left field when a solution is staring them in the face. What could Aberdeen's Derek McInnes have done with 10m at his disposal, provided he was inclined to swap the stability of Pittodrie for the Ibrox madhouse?

Caixinha and his signings will now come under serious scrutiny when the season starts. He was unfortunate that perhaps the best of them, Bruno Alves, wasn't around to steady the ship last week. The 35-year-old capped 93 times by Portugal would have provided the dominant defensive presence to stop the goals lost in Luxembourg, but was instead representing his country at the Confederations Cup in Russia.

The lag in securing Graham Dorrans from Norwich City as a playmaker was avoidable, though. There was too much protracted haggling over the fee before he finally signed on Thursday for 1.3m. Dorrans' craft might have made the difference against Progres, conjuring the away goal that eluded Rangers.

Yet Caixinha's team should still have had more than enough to see off the part-timers they faced. The Rangers manager was caught on camera afterwards in what may become the defining image of his time at Ibrox. It shows him standing knee-deep in shrubbery outside the Stade Josy Barthel pointing a finger during an argument with furious supporters as he attempts to apologise to them.

The wider picture is that Scotland has already lost two of its three Europa League entrants in the first qualifying round, further harming the crucial country coefficient. St Johnstone slipped out of the tournament almost unnoticed after Rangers' spectacular exit, but their 3-1 aggregate loss to FK Trakai of Lithuania was actually more damaging in the coefficient context because they lost home and away.

As it stands, Scotland are projected to fall from 23rd of Uefa's 54 nations to 27th next season, although that could change depending on how Aberdeen and Celtic fare. McInnes's side start their Europa League campaign against Siroki Brijeg of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Thursday night at Pittodrie, while Celtic travel to Belfast to begin their annual attempt to secure a place in the Champions League against Linfield on Friday.

By club coefficient, Celtic are the top seeds in the second qualifying round and expected to progress through it and two more qualifiers to the group stage, although it is never a simple process for them. There is an absurdity to a former winner of the tournament having to endure that each summer to take their place among the elite, but they are dragged down by Scotland's country coefficient. Although Celtic fans understandably crowed at Rangers loss in Luxembourg, the reality is that it will have repercussions for all Scotland's clubs in the years to come.

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/is-pedro-caixinha-a-dead-man-walking-8bz68scdn

[plumbGER 24,518]

In a word, yes.

[MFJ14 464]

Should have already gone for that horror show in Luxembourg

[Amac9 2,060]

Be amazed if he's still here by Christmas.

[Darrenmt7 656]

He has to start the season well, If the results are shity 1-1s or even poor 2-1s then majority of people wont be happy, we should be easily controlling most matches and winning by a good number of goals.

[Bad Robot 21,150]

He has a stay of execution but he must start the league with getting points on the table so come September we're still toe to toe with the pedos. 

We must also win at Ibrox but if the league is even slipping at that point due to poor results, performances and tactics he needs to go. 

If the league is slipping due to footballing bad luck and the performances are there, then he'll be reassessed at Christmas.

Why the fck the board never gave an unknown quantity a one year rolling contract, I'll never know.

[Nameless Ghoul 6,054]

As soon as we get pumped by motherwell he is for the off

[Guest Lloyd72]

Just now, Rangers_no1 said:

Yes.

Not confident at all we will win the first three matches against Motherwell, Hivs and Hearts. 

Be a huge surprise if he lasts the season.

If he's still here by October I'll be shocked

[Virtuoso 27,180]

11 minutes ago, Amac9 said:

Be amazed if he's still here by Christmas.

I'll be surprised if he's still here come the tattie holidays.

[Gaz52 11,837]

Why do we share blatant hate-pieces on our club on this forum? All I took from that is King is a fanny, a reminder about liquidation, demoted to the fourth tier and yet another mention of getting those 4 titles took off us. 

Not a single newspaper can give a balanced piece on Rangers, it's always wrote in the form of an attack on us. Sick of the shite. 

[andy500 463]

The majority of his signings haven't even played 90 minutes of football for us.

• Bruno Alves - 0
• Graham Dorrans - 0
• Carlos Pena - 0
• Eduardo Herrera - 15
• Alfredo Morelos - 60
• Daniel Candeias - 75
• Dalcio - 135
• Fabio Cardoso - 180
• Ryan Jack - 180

If he has a plan for this season, we haven't yet gotten the chance to see it. The qualifier was an absolute disaster - but we have 3 of the biggest signings we've made in years to join the team before the league season kicks off. A few good results in a row, and we have every chance of doing something. 

[Lothianbear 361]

Well he hasn't been here all that long and yet he has managed us over three contenders for "worst result in our history" , Septic at Ibrox, the sheep at Ibrox and now the worst of all in my opinion our Brexit. So at this moment in time its not looking good at all. In all honesty i cant see anything in his management style to give us hope for the coming season. 

[Ger_onimo 20,488]

7 minutes ago, Lloyd72 said:

If he's still here by October I'll be shocked

I think we'll wait until we're pumped out of every competition and our season is completely over, that's more our style. January.

[kaiser1041 9,088]

He won't turn it around 

[kaiser1041 9,088]

2 minutes ago, Gaz52 said:

Why do we share blatant hate-pieces on our club on this forum? All I took from that is King is a fanny, a reminder about liquidation, demoted to the fourth tier and yet another mention of getting those 4 titles took off us. 

Not a single newspaper can give a balanced piece on Rangers, it's always wrote in the form of an attack on us. Sick of the shite. 

The soft petals in our support like other to be upset aswell

[The Dude 20,026]

3 minutes ago, Gaz52 said:

Why do we share blatant hate-pieces on our club on this forum? All I took from that is King is a fanny, a reminder about liquidation, demoted to the fourth tier and yet another mention of getting those 4 titles took off us. 

Not a single newspaper can give a balanced piece on Rangers, it's always wrote in the form of an attack on us. Sick of the shite. 

Not strictly true. http://www.<No links to this website>/sport/football/pedro-caixinha-must-deliver-rangers-10741642

[delamonty 992]

Fuck sake.   Ok terrible embarrassing result. I care deeply about this

He needs OUR TEAM needs our support

 

MON THEGERS!!!!

[Bigsasasfloppyhair 13,310]

I'm happy to give him some time to bed the players in and hopefully hits the ground running come the start of the season. 

But got this deep gut feeling that we should have went for a steady appointment like a Mcleish etc. 

[CoatbridgeBear 7,113]

Horror show last week aye, but everyone on here seems to have him done already, and our season wrote off already. Fuckin hell. Anyone mind the taigs getting fucked 5-0 in a qualifier at Artmedia Bratislava and scooshing the league the same season. Aye it was horrible last week but come on to fuck let his new signings actually have a Rangers top on 1st.

[Smile 26,606]

9 minutes ago, andy500 said:

The majority of his signings haven't even played 90 minutes of football for us.

• Bruno Alves - 0
• Graham Dorrans - 0
• Carlos Pena - 0
• Eduardo Herrera - 15
• Alfredo Morelos - 60
• Daniel Candeias - 75
• Dalcio - 135
• Fabio Cardoso - 180
• Ryan Jack - 180

If he has a plan for this season, we haven't yet gotten the chance to see it. The qualifier was an absolute disaster - but we have 3 of the biggest signings we've made in years to join the team before the league season kicks off. A few good results in a row, and we have every chance of doing something. 

We have to hope with these players coming in we improve a 100%.

[the_r_sole 366]

the biggest problem he will have is even if he does turn things around and we start to look like a half decent, balanced team - he's overseen some results that some in our support or media will never forgive or forget.

He'll need a cup or two and taking the league to the last few games in order to have any chance of staying on next year no matter how the performances pan out

[Virtuoso 27,180]

13 minutes ago, andy500 said:

The majority of his signings haven't even played 90 minutes of football for us.

• Bruno Alves - 0
• Graham Dorrans - 0
• Carlos Pena - 0
• Eduardo Herrera - 15
• Alfredo Morelos - 60
• Daniel Candeias - 75
• Dalcio - 135
• Fabio Cardoso - 180
• Ryan Jack - 180

If he has a plan for this season, we haven't yet gotten the chance to see it. The qualifier was an absolute disaster - but we have 3 of the biggest signings we've made in years to join the team before the league season kicks off. A few good results in a row, and we have every chance of doing something. 

Whether they've played 90 minutes for us or not is irrelevant. A scrappy one nil win at home and beaten two nil away - to a part time team which has never won a European tie is simply unacceptable. Our youth team should be beating the likes of that.

Simply unacceptable and although the board have been quick enough with statements regarding the tax outcome - they've remained very quiet over the result.

Basically they've buried bad news with bad news.

[Malvern 11,329]

Happy to let him run the show the way he wants with the players he wants and see where we are in a couple of months into the league before reacting to that humiliating defeat in the Europa.

[BlueThunder 8,453]

3 minutes ago, Malvern said:

Happy to let him run the show the way he wants with the players he wants and see where we are in a couple of months into the league before reacting to that humiliating defeat in the Europa.

Yeah, like it or not we have to give him some time to show his signings are good, and that we can compete.

At the moment it doesn't look promising but early/pre season form is often very deceptive.

[Alves70 393]

It's not an excuse but a turnaround of 16 players coming in and going out in the space of 4 weeks was always going to be difficult to overcome.

Also don't think the ridiculously early start helped either with no actual real friendlies played. Playing games at training grounds is never going to prepare players for the real thing and that's probably the biggest mistake Pedro made this summer

On paper we have a squad that should wipe the floor with most teams in the league let's wait and see where we are after the first 3 games that will give a real indication of what kind of season we will have.