Rangers have had a season to forget for many reasons, the initial high of qualifying for the Champions League soon descended into chaos as player after player got injured and Giovanni van Bronckhorst was left with two midfielders playing in the heart of defence and a 34-year old and 37-year old partnering each other in midfield.
Yes, there are things that Gio could obviously have done better, however, throughout his entire tenure he was working with one hand tied behind his back. He only ever had one fit striker in his year in charge between Kemar Roofe’s issues and Alfredo Morelos’s thigh injury and subsequent return to “fitness” with Antonio Colak carrying the goalscoring burden for much of the first half of this season on his own.
Speaking to Football Insider, Alan Hutton has shown sympathy for current gaffer Michael Beale who is having to juggle with an injury list that is gradually starting to improve as he attempts to stamp his own authority and style of play onto the team:
“The problem for Michael Beale is that he inherited it.
“He has come into the club and really hit the ground running, you can’t argue with the team’s form. In certain moments in time they could have done better.
“The likes of Souttar who is missing for large periods, Yilmaz missed a lot. These things can’t be helped, it is not like he could have done anything different. It is probably more focusing on what he can change at this moment in time.
“Can he get these boys back fit to help the team? Or is it a case of he needs to bring his own players in. So it is a difficult situation for him.
“He obviously wants a fully fit squad, it is getting better week on week. Moving forward he can only concentrate on what he can affect and that is the fit players within the squad. I am sure that is what he is doing at the moment.“
Hutton is right, but Beale also needs to make the right calls when it matters such as in the cup final when he chose to play John Lundstram and Glen Kamara rather than Nico Raskin and Todd Cantwell.
Players like Lawrence, Yilmaz and Roofe would all improve the starting XI but we need to get them back fit, however, in the summer, we need to make sure that the players we recruit are more robust, especially the ones that are going to be expected to be key figures for the next few years.