da casino： It’s fair to say that things aren’t quite going to plan at Rangers right now. After a disappointing season under Mark Warburton, the hope was that a new manager would come in and at least give the club a bit of a lift going into what is a massive summer transfer window.
da betsul： Unfortunately for supporters it hasn’t quite panned out like that and morale at the club appears to be as low as it has been all season. Two big derby defeats to Celtic didn’t help, neither did a poor loss at home to Aberdeen which meant the Dons ended a 26 year winless record at Ibrox.
The pressure may not be on Pedro Caixinha quite yet but questions are beginning to be asked and the early signs aren’t exactly encouraging for fans. Ultimately he will be judged on next season but there are some key issues that need addressed even at this stage.
Here are three worrying signs that the new Rangers boss might not be up to the task…
Just five wins
Any manager is judged on results and for a team like Rangers with the second biggest budget in the country, that means winning the majority of your matches. Draws feel like defeats, losses feel like disasters. There’s not much room when you manage the Light Blues and their record so far under Pedro Caixinha leaves a lot to be desired.
Since taking charge his side have played ten matches in all competitions and have won only 5 of them. The defeats against Celtic and Aberdeen sting most but there were also poor draws against Kilmarnock and Mothwerwell, two sides who have been struggling in the bottom six of the table all season.
Of course this is not all Caixinha’s doing, the squad is in pretty rough shape, but you’d say that Rangers still have a quality well beyond most of the Scottish top-flight.
In recent weeks even the victories have been incredibly hard fought. They laboured to a win against 10 man Hearts before requiring a late, late show away to Partick Thistle.
It’s not exactly the kind of form that inspires confidence in the support going forward.
Dressing room unrest
Since Pedro Caixinha took charge of the team there have been multiple reports of dressing room unrest and players failing to follow instruction. We’ve had Michael O’Halloran being punished for failing to turn up for an U20s game, we’ve had Caixinha himself accuse his players of deliberately not following instructions, we’ve had fall outs surrounding his decision to start their pre-season training earlier than expected and again the manager lambasting staff at the club who are leaking this unrest to the media.
It’s not exactly the kind of news supporters want to see coming out of the club and it’s increasingly looking like he is failing to get a grip on discipline within his squad and staff.
To be fair to Caixinha, nobody thought it would be an easy task for him to come into a league he has never experienced before and hit the ground running but fans need to start seeing he is taking control of the situation and not letting the big club pressure swamp him.
Struggling to deal with thirsty media
From his very first press conference as Rangers manager it was clear that Pedro Caixinha wasn’t going to be your typical manager when it comes to dealing with the media in Scotland. From in depth tactical discussion to forthright replies, some fans have taken to his style and others haven’t.
This week thought it all came to a rather calamitous head when he spoke at length about the situation Aberdeen find themselves in, shortly before their trip to Ibrox. He claimed they were coming to the end of their current ‘cycle’ and were in decline, which was of course shot to pieces when the Dons beat them on their own patch for the first time in 26 years.
Those kind of big words didn’t exactly go down well with the Aberdeen camp and no doubt motivated them ahead of Wednesday night’s clash.
He’s failing to deal with a critical media in an adequate manner nor understanding that this big talk and bluster is put under a magnifying lens in the Glasgow football fish bowl.
For the time being at least, it may be better if he lets Rangers do the talking on the pitch, rather than off it.