If there is one thing I’d like Michael Beale to do, it’s take a little more responsibility with regards to his teams tactics when things don’t go to plan.
The decision to not play Todd Cantwell and Nico Raskin from the start against Celtic in the league cup final, playing a more direct game plan that clearly didn’t suit the players and resorting to firing cross, after cross against Raith Rovers when they had ten players in the box.
Beale expected better from his players and, as reported by The Rangers Review, chose to look at what Raith’s game plan was as a key factor in how we played:
“They were really deep and I can’t choose how the other team approach the game, we can only face the problems that are put in front of us. In midweek Hibs came and tried to face us head on and left spaces and we were really ruthless.
“Raith tried a different tactic of being really compact in the game. We still got into really good areas and I’m expecting us to do slightly better.
“But the way they played the game we had to see it out professionally and we did that in the end.”
Yes, Raith sat in, however, whether the ball was on the left or right-hand side, whenever crosses were getting thrown into the box you were lucky to see 2-3 Rangers players trying to get in on the end of them. On too many occasions, our entire midfield and defence would all be behind the ball with Ryan Kent also not making any real attempt to get into scoring positions.
As I picked out against Hibs, when the opposition is playing with one striker and their midfield is entirely behind the ball, do we really need to have 5-6 players plus Allan McGregor goal side of the ball? We are making it too easy to play against us.
It’s Beale’s job to push more players on, to commit more players to the box, when he first arrived he spoke about taking the handbrake off and “going for it every week” well, he is in charge and has both hands on it just now.