Pedro makes worrying admission

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Pedro makes worrying admission

When a new manager comes in, there is often a period of adjustment – from formations, to selections, to how the press are handled. Fans equally have to adjust to the new way of doing things, given how locked they previously were into the last manager’s methods.

There is often a honeymoon spell, where the new boss ekes out extra from his new squad of (usually) underachievers and fans often poke fun at the ex manager pointing out how the new one is getting so much more from the same players.

And when we watched Pedro Caixinha’s debut against Hamilton, it looked very much the same process. It looked like the regular bunch of dross was actually working as a machine, smoothly oiled, in a new formation, and the 4-0 scoreline was entirely reflective of that display.

Unfortunately, Pedro Caixinha’s debut remains the best match under his charge, and few could argue the performances since then have been at best unconvincing and at worst, abysmal. And that everything surrounding this bizarre Rangers’ regime is at best eccentric and at worst amateur.

From the immature spat with Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes, to these increasingly odd press conferences which convey a mixture of defiance, confusion, and stubbornness, to line ups and formations which show absolutely zero understanding of Scottish football far less Rangers, to the ditching of arguably the club’s best defender in Clint Hill, to admitting he and his team ‘did not understand the game’, to the over-indulgent media interviews which say a ridiculous amount too much, to the bewildering ‘local Scottish assistant’ nonsense where the picked man was barely local and definitely not Scottish.

It does not look good folks.

In fairness, Pedro Caixinha did not appoint himself; this is the board’s sword. If this (inexplicable) managerial appointment does not work out, the board 100% fall on it. No one wanted Pedro – let us make that abundantly clear. Let us remove our blue tinted specs, and our natural willingness to give the man a chance; no one wanted Pedro Caixinha to be the new manager – it was Tommy Wright, or Derek McInnes, or McLeish, or Souness, or McCall, or even Alex Neil; but instead the board opted for the bizarre choice of Caixinha.

Do not get me wrong – I actually like the man – he is an intelligent and decent guy, and unlike his predecessor has not acted with arrogance or spouted lie after lie; but he is not Rangers.

This is not me sending him to the guillotine before he has had a chance to build his own squad – but then do you have to build your own squad to know Jon Toral is not a defensive midfielder, or that starting with two rookie central defenders is a bad idea?

I can see worrying echoes of Bread Boy in the way our current manager fails to grasp what Rangers means, or how to manage us. It is truly a fish out of water right now.

Last night he said he and his team did not understand the game:

DID NOT UNDERSTAND THE GAME.

Going by the starting XI, the formation, and the subs, I would have to agree. In fairness to him the game did switch a degree of momentum when he finally elected to correct his mistake and hook the absolutely ghastly Toral off and replace him with the impressive youngster Jamie Barjonas, but conceding he and his men lacked basic understanding of the match is a deeply worrying comment.

The harsh reality is few are convinced by all this; even the names linked in the press as new signings are hardly the stuff of rebuilding a Rangers we all admire. Sure, Ryan Jack is a decent recruit once it is formalised, but it is a rare exception – from Ben Henaghan to Rashid Sumaila, to a worrying number of aged old defenders, to a general lack of midfielders or strikers, Louis Moult aside – it feels very much like replacing Warburton’s old rubbish with Pedro’s new rubbish.

On last night’s debacle he said:

“We could not cope with the pressure the opponent was putting on us and we need to deal with it when that pressure is coming. We lacked that and especially the three midfielders were being pressed and chased all around the pitch which meant we left more spaces.”

Is Pedro actually admitting his game plan was a mess? That his midfield tactics were completely wrong? I do respect when a manager concedes he got something wrong – but it is starting to become quite a regularity.

And added on top of the absolute weirdness of everything else it really is not reassuring. As previously stated, the board picked this man. They went against the wishes of nearly every Rangers fan and ignored a bunch of more desired candidates.

In the coming months I would love to be proven totally wrong on this; that this risky move pans out the way we hope it does, rather than fear it does. We need Pedro to work out. We need his new signings to work out.

But we will equally not sit idly by as such obvious mistakes, weirdness and plain amateurishness plays out in the media and on the pitch. We will not pretend this stuff is not happening.

We can only pray it all works out, because the opposite does not bear thinking about.

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58 COMMENTS

  1. Fair shout. I'm still in the camp that thinks he should get the chance and see what he can do with his "own" players, but even my sunny disposition is creaking a little with the whole McInnes "respect" crap.
    We can hope, but… can't say vigorous optimism is flooding my veins. Warburton failed by sticking to the wrong players in the wrong places and refusing to change. Pedro does the change bit, but still has the wrong player syndrome. Toral was way off it last night- hopelessly out of position and sorts.

    • That's how I feel Doug mate. We know the squad is sub standard bar the young lads and Miller.. I still think the likes of Dodoo and Garner are worth a risk of them improving.. Ped has to cut out all the media pish and concentrate on the job at hand..He needs time true but even with his own players I'm beginning to have doubts.. Let's hope I'm wrong too

  2. Unfortunately I have to agree. It's beginning to look farcical already. Clearly the guy is intelligent but at times it's difficult to grasp what he's on about in press conferences so one wonders how much the players understand of his desired formation and tactics (even if they were fit for purpose). Worryingly this situation is evident even sooner than it did with the loaf – it wasn't until his comment after Billy King's late winner that "he should have stayed wide on the wing instead of coming inside" (and scoring !) that I was convinced he was a dud. Ped already looks considerably out of his depth. He talks the talk, but there's zero evidence of a coherent plan. Doubtless the board will continue with him into next season rather than admitting their ghastly error, question is, how much more time and money are we gonna waste before replacing him. Yeah, I know, talking of replacing him before he's had a chance to build his own team ! But from what's been on show he ain't got a clue about how to cope with the Scottish game. Hope to fuck I'm wrong.

  3. I fear that we will loose one of the early ties in europa qualification – lets be honest this team could loose heavily against average continental sides.

    I agree with much of the sentiment of this article but it holds back from stating the truth- this club will continue to sink until fans wise up and force change. King is the problem not the solution.

    • E-Chef

      The fix is in place, people wanted King to come in and 'fix' us, so there can be no complaint from the masses…as you can see he gets little or no bad press, little or no real questions and little or no accountability…no idea what flavour of 'magic mushrooms' people are on …but until he is out, this 2nd rate manager, 3rd rate team and 4th rate board are gone he will only drive us into the ground….the clock is ticking and the time is almost up unless something changes pretty damn quick…..

      GSTQ

  4. Agree with the article. And while the table suggests we're probably where we should be in our first season back in the Prem, I think we'd have finished 4th, or maybe even 5th behind St Johnstone, if Robbie Neilson was still the Hearts manager. If someone were to ask, "How many players do St Johnstone need in order to win the title?" – the same answer applies to us.
    We need some answers now from Dave King. He can hide behind the accepted rule that says a club can't reveal its transfer budget to competitors, but he could state EXACTLY how much money there is to spend this summer in other areas like the scouting network/improving Murray Park etc. As we stand now, we haven't a scooby what the short-term plan is, never mind the long-term.

    • There's an old saying " pay what you can't afford and you might win titles in the short term, but in the long term you'll be exposed as cheats and then have to work up from the fourth tier of Scottish football."

  5. Incidentally, the behaviour of some of our fans recently is stomach-churning too. That fool (an aged child who looked well in his 30s or 40s) who ran away with the match ball last night should have been floored with an uppercut for embarassing our club at a time when we least need the attention. I applaud the guy who tried to stop him. And the guy in the paper the other day who changed his name to Cint Hill (a new level of idiocy), only for it to be revealed that he's banned from Ibrox. Honestly, I'm beginning to believe that we've been cursed by a witch doctor …

    • Sadly I agree.

      Our club was miles ahead of Celtic pre admin in terms of dealing with sectarian problems and fan behaviour. We faced up to it while Celtic denied the problem – illustrated by oneil embarrassingly refusing to condemn sectarian problems in tv interview.

      But now it's all fallen by the wayside and we look like the club in denial about our problems.

      Sorry to say this but there is a sizeable section of our fans that have a chip on their shoulder and believe that this justifies acting like morons.

  6. I don't think a new managerial appointment at Rangers has caused so big a divide amongst supporters. A good friend of mine said we should have sacked him after the unbelievably hard defeat at home 1-5 from our arch rivals; I have to agree that had he been sacked then I wouldn't have complained.
    On the other hand I feel he has had the misfortune in inheriting a dreadful squad of players left by the folly our previous managers recruitment has left the club in. He also has had forced upon him to play young players who were making their debuts in high performance games. At this time I would congratulate all four of these players for their efforts;Beerman, Bates, AidanWilson and Barjonas, it can't be easy coming into such a disjointed squad.
    However, the manager has proven a real void in his methodology in realising what I said needed in the Scottish game. After the debacle in both old firm games, lack of nuance in playing away from home, I.e. the shocking performance at Firhill and last nights efforts against Aberdeen, we actually made them look good, where he should have shut up shop, preventing them from creating chances.
    So as far as I feel, if the board came out and said, 'we got it wrong' and sacked him today, I would fully support them and accept some of the board members to resign as this is their second calamitous managerial appointment because it is their fault we have lost the 1-5 game and the record of not losing at Ibrox to Aberdeen since 1991 as much as the managers.

  7. It is embarrassing beyond belief….we have a manager who thinks that he is portrayed by fans and journalists alike as another Portuguese 'special one' when infact his stupid spats, premature team announcements and general lack of on the field tactics have left the fans open mouthed with many of them hoping that it will all come good next season with his own players. WELL SORRY FOLKS but this is Warburton in disguise, we will struggle to be third next year, we have no quality and no apparent pattern of play. Mr Pedro will be gone before Halloween and with any luck so will the board. What ever happened to our Director of Football? What was the point in announcing the necessity of a 'Scottish' coach to bridge the continental gap then bring in a Scandinavian for that purpose? Sorry with Hibs coming back up and Hearts assumingly will get better…… we will struggle to retain third! Retain third ….now that is an atrocious statement for a Rangers fan but at the moment very realistic. Scares me!

  8. I am not a lover of andy walker,but after pedro's start i think he may be right and he will not last six months,watching this stuff is not football,toral was a liability against hearts but he's back in again last night,and toral's off in a few days,i don't think the players understand what they are supposed to be doing and that's the managers job,one thing stands out for me against hearts who had only ten men,we had a corner and once again never left a man on the half way line for counter hearts had eight men in our box and we had ELEVEN, this might sound trivial to a lot of people but this is basic football it takes two to look after one,personally i have not seen one thing that's been better than before and he's another joey barton shouting his mouth off,

  9. I'm honestly coming around to the view that Pedro has a screw loose. 'Not the full bob' as they say here….

  10. Aye good comments from a good post Noise …He is not the guy to take us forward or to stabilise .The appointment is flawed and needs to be corrected asap …before he gets whatever else cash we can scrape together. PLEASE Act NOW or the season book money will be lost

  11. The sings are plain to see for everyone. It is a worrying sight. But let's be honest we are unfortunately well and truest used to things going wrong now. There is no surprise at all now when the crap hits the fan. It's expected now that's the sad state of our club at the moment. This guy has shown on numerous occasions that he isn't aware of correct tactics and he isn't even understandable when he try's to explain them!

  12. Caixinha is nailing his own coffin. Intelligent,my arse, talks complete nonsense. Tactically abysmal. He has been brought in towards end of season to choose what players can be utilised. He is making so many bad choices from midfield selection, in particular , to organisation that borders on school boy. He is making next years selection of players to keep ( in contract can't get rid of) very difficult due to midfield getting overrun and humping the ball up the park. Why is Waghorn in the squad? Our only hope is, he knows a few better players to bring in for the next manager. If Caixinha is still here after Xmas I'll be amazed.

  13. This is turning out to be another major embarrassment. Every time he opens his mouth he talks absolute drivel.His formations totally lose me, if he says he is defending the club one more time I will scream. We should have learned our lesson with warburton,but no here we go again. Everything done on the cheap so this is what we get. Absolute crap. WATP

  14. Rangers fc have done nothing but go backwards under the new manager. And from where i sit he does not seem to have a clue. Its easy to blame managers i guess but Rangers fc do not have the funds to buy the players you need that is completely evident. Personally i wouldnt trust the new manager to spend a penny in the transfer market and that would suit mr king very nicely. As supporters you are unable to deal with your situation and seem to think you have some god given right to be the best team in scotland. You have to earn that right im afraid and getting petulant and throwing the dolly out the pram because you arent the best team in scotland is from a neutral perspective really quite funny and makes you just look like bad supporters who only sing when you are winning. winter break and Rangers fc were second 2 point above aberdeen. with the current manager and lack of funds i would estimate a mid table finish next season. Get used to it.

    • Our fans are losin the plot 😂😂 some of the stuff im hearin is crazy, the worst one is bring bk murty and sack the new manager…..wowww!! Lol !

  15. It could be that Pedro knows he can not get second and played the game like that but 26 years is a long time and it could be Pedro needs to watch some videos and read some books all about the team he has I fear we are going have to pay this one off we will soon be paying more people than we have playing.

  16. Is caixhina just a fall guy?

    The board know they don't have the cash required and perhaps they hope the manager will take the flak?

    Time to stand up and force king and co to put up the money or go.

    • E-Chef

      I said at the time Ped was the 'disposable asset' our illustrious chairman could only dream of, wet behind the ears, untried, untested but willing to jump into a lions den….what a scoop for them!!!!

      GSTQ

  17. Caxinha should zip it.The whole media around Ibrox should be severely curtailed. Too many players young and old asked for opinions from the last game to next. Focus should be on team performance and tactics. Let us do our talking on the pitch FFS. There is a void in midfield the size of the one in Caxinha's head. Look at our performances since he came in, diabolical.
    Empty vessels make most noise and I don't want to hear any more excuses from him or players. Win games, that's what your paid for and keep your thoughts to yourselves.Rangers and us fans would all be better for it.
    We simply don't want to hear what Waghorn had for breakfast or who his hardest opponent was. Score fuckin' goals ya muppet and shut the fuck up.

    • "We simply don't want to hear what Waghorn had for breakfast or who his hardest opponent was. Score fuckin' goals ya muppet and shut the fuck up."

      Absolutely perfectly put, couldn't agree more! lol

  18. Are we going to give him a transfer window or a season ? Or are you going to stay on a witch hunt until you get what u want and get him sacked ? Give the guy a fu**in break man, he basicly had an under 20s defence lst night. And the rest packed it in months ago. Now a manager cant even get a transfer windy to sign some players. And dont say he shud improve what we have cos alex ferguson would do fuc* all wae tht team the way it is the now. Lets judge him after hes got a few lads in. Maby we could support him ? Just an idea !

    • Here Here Davey, all this negativity. We have finished the season higher than I felt we could last year and have europa to look forward to. For the last few games as you say we have been playing with the development squad defence. Who else could the man have played as centre half's? Wilson, Hodson, Hill are all injured, Senderos on way out. As manager he has been using these games to assess squad for next year, who stays and who goes.

      I have not as yet made up my mind on Caxinha, and agree that some of his decisions have been odd, but will reserve my judgement until he has had time to add a few of his own players. I feel that we require 5 quality players and possibly 4 good squad players, and we will get a lot closer to Celtic next season. Never lose faith for We are Rangers and that is a privilege. We will be back stronger next year.

    • Just wish we could stick behind him a bit more. I relise hes mde a couple of mistakes, but the lges done. Let him get a feel for things, hel get to know exactly what he wants and who he needs. Im quite excited to be honest :), and i will bk him. But you just know the witch hunt brigade will be out to put everyin he does dwn. Just si they can all say 'told yae so'

  19. I think people need to look at the big picture here and really take onboard whats going on.

    Last night we played with 2"kids" at CB. We tossed them in at the deep end together, perfect time to learn as lets be honest, last night was a nothing game. Sure we can talk about records and all sorts but ultimately it means nothing.

    The way i'm looking at it is that Pedro knows the has until the end of the season to do some experimenting with the squad before he really starts to be put under the microscope next season. I'd much rather blood in some youngsters at the end of the season for free, because the games mean nothing. If the young lads "pass" with what Pedro wants from them in these games then there's a good chance they can be utilised properly next season and he can look at other positions to strengthen as a priority.

    The fact of the matter is that we haven't scored enough goals, and we've conceded far too many this season, rounded off with a non-existent midfield where 2 players are loanees who will not be around next season.

    The first team will look very different next season in my opinion. I just hope that we do get Ryan Jack from Aberdeen as Rangers have sorely missed having a player in the middle of the park who can do the dirty work and control games for far too long now.

    Something like this:

    GK – Fotheringham

    LB – Wallace
    CB – Alves
    CB – Sumalia/Wilson/Bates/Wilson
    RB- Beerman

    LM – Mckay
    CDM – Rossiter
    CM -Kracjar
    CM – Jack
    RM – Tavernier

    ST – Garner/Moult/Miller

    Next season has the potential to be the perfect start with some solid foundations for challenging for the league title or cups in 2018/19 season. A solid second with a cup final would be great progress in my opinion.

    • I duno what they are all fulla mate, there goin aff there nut. Hes doin the best he can until the window open. Well said mate 👍

    • I would try get kenny mcclean too** i agree with moult hes quick, tall and powerful.i say 3 or 4 gd additions along with a few of our best youth and we will do gd.

    • I totally agree about the youngsters and the playing side. My problem with him is this "respect" shite he's fannying about McInnes with. He needs to stop talking balls and get some respect on the pitch.

    • Dan

      A 26 yr old record of beating the Sheep at Ibrox means nothing? The biggest thumping of the Dirt at Ibrox will nothing either then? We all know Pedro inherited that squad and it ain't his own players so cut some a lot of slack for that yes.. You honestly wouldn't have thought that squad performances would've got any worse but they have..The carry on over DM being disrespectful and not showing up after the Pittodrie game, so spits his dummy oot and says you're not welcome in my office! Disgraceful behaviour that even Neil Lennon had a drink wae Smith & Coisty after that incident at the Piggery.. If he publicly apologises to DM for that then I'd give him a second chance defo.. As for next season I hope reads all these posts and proves us doubters wrong…
      Records are there to be broken or beat that's true but it's in the fashion we lost against the Sheep that does me – played off the Park

    • I honestly think that the whole media act is nothing more than deflection to try and keep the spotlight off of the squad and the youngsters when things go tits up.

      Take last night for example, a 26 year record was broken, a new youngster was bloodied at CB, we lost 2-1, yet all the media is talking about is the "respect thing". No-one is scrutinising how the youngsters performed under pressure (The 4 lads done better than the rest of them) or how poor we actually were.

    • I'm happy with the score from last night and before you all shout let me explain. I know we lost a record last night but we started with 2 youths in back line and lost 1 goal, we then had 3 youths in the back line and only lost 1 more goal to a team who have been playing together for the past couple of years.
      I think Pedro should be given next season both windows and see how he does with his own team who know how to play his way, both youth and experience. What else we need to remember is that although Pedro can speak good English what he says does come out the wrong way some of the time so give him a chance? Pedro speaks a good game, I can see what he wants to do at times but some of the players are not interested in playing for our club at this moment of time.
      I would play against the saints at the weekend the youth players with a couple of first team players ie players who have done well the past couple of weeks like Kenny, Wes and Clint.

    • Dan RB and Shug.

      I understand with deflecting the pressure aff the young ones, thing is we can't blame the youngsters – Beerman Bates Wilson Barjonas..I understand he needs to bring in his own players and gel a team with the Youth coming through.. Ok I was rash with my wording last night and a knee jerk reaction.. Thing is I wasn't against him getting the job as it stands, I don't want Ped to fail as that means the Gers will 🇬🇧

  20. I'll be the first to put my hand up and say I've got it wrong. He's not the man for the job at Rangers. I said give him a year with his own players in, but bollocks that..After his actions before and after the Sheep game is a disgrace and embarrasing for the Club & Fans..Bring back Murty that is all..

    • Murty ??? Ur even more embarrisin if you think hes magicly going to do any better, dundee and st johnstone gubbed us and morton wer aw er us.just cos he got a 1-1 against celtic dusny make him a miracle worker celtic wer pish tht day. No1 can do any better wae tht group a players. We need new ones withba mixture a youth as well. A cny believe our supporters. Yous wont eveb give our new manager a transfer window, listen to wt yous are sayin its mental

    • Murty steadied the ship when he came in, quelled the dressing-room unrest/got the squad behind him and carried himself in the manner that a Rangers manager should – with dignity and a bit of class. His record with the young players is excellent, and he managed to get a result out of Celtic that Pedro couldn't muster in two attempts. We still know next to nothing about Pedro, so it's understandable that fans (me included) are nervous about trusting him with what little cash there is in the till. If he fucks this up, it could be catastrophic for the club.

    • Davey Shug

      I'm more pissed off with his respect thing with DM as he's made himself and the Club look like fannys!! I appreciate that he's got a sub standard squad most of it not fit for purpose yeh.. I don't mind a manager using mind games but he basically gave Aberdeen a foot up with the going through a cycle phase… It motivated them ffs instead he should've been motivating his own fucking players it's that simple mate.. If he is to stay he better wise up with his comments to the media as far it ain't great…Still pissed off at getting beat like that of those fuckers!!

  21. Maybe I'm too cynical, but how should Dave King's statement today be interpreted?

    "All of our season ticket money will be invested in the football squad as we continue to work towards taking our club back to the very top of Scottish Football."

    One newspaper believes it to mean: "King now expects improvements from the new manager next season but has vowed to hand him every penny of the £13million expected to be generated from season ticket sales to re-shape his team."

    True? Or does it mean that season ticket money will be used to cover the squad's wages, travel costs, keeping them warm, everything down to (as someone said on here before) the coffee and teabags in the players lounge? With anything left over being used for transfer/signing-on/agent fees?

    King's statement, probably by design, could mean either of these things.

    More doublespeak…or a reason for hope?

    • Jorg

      Time will tell soon enough sadly one way or another by end of the Summer.. I'd probably say the last option if I was a betting man…

    • It's another case of smoke and mirrors to con fans into buying season tickets.

      I read his statement as clear indication that there will be no major investment, for example the cash previously promised.

    • Jorg

      Don't believe one fuckin word of what he says….look how much lies he has already spun, ffs look at what he didn't say and you will be closer to the truth….

      GSTQ

  22. Like most I didn't want his appointment because even though I knew very little about him I still didn't think he was the man for the job. I stand by that. He is as written above, tactically inept.

    I fear we've been landed with another Warburton. I couldn't wait to get rid of him but expected us to progress somewhat without him. Yes I'm aware that Ped has been left with MW's woeful signings befor anyone tells me that.

  23. Pedro life just got better,Chairman Dave King this afternoon vowed to reinvest all season ticket cash in the playing squad

    dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/rangers-chairman-dave-king-vows-10448922

    • Are you kidding?

      This isn't good news this is really bad.

      WHERE IS THE MONEY HE PROMISED?

      Season ticket money is the fans cash not his.

      I despise, King is making a complete mug of the fans and people are happy about it.

    • E-Chef,i agree he King is taking the fans for mugs he puts nothing in he said he put £18 million in of £30 million where is the other £ 12 million mr king is it our own ticket money he is going use.

  24. Horrific display both on and off the park. Our club is turning into a laughing stock from inept tactics, players running around like headless chickens, Pedro doing his best to lose players and supporters alike and now the annual Dave King assurances that all season ticket money will be spent on the playing squad(not transfer fees but wages etc) as history tells us this is what he really means. We will be mid table next year with Pedro at the helm, regardless of who he brings in, as it is clear that he is out of his depth here. Murty would have got more out of this squad and he must be looking on in disbelief at what he is witnessing. A mistake has been made and Pedro must be replaced before the club spend any of my ST money

  25. I think its the good old scenario, the boy can talk the talk in an interview but actually does not have the experience, tactical nounce etc to practice what his interview preached. We have all seen it in our jobs people who can waffle an interview but actually can't do the job and it's looking like Pedro is one of these guys.
    I know they ain't his chosen players but we have gotten worse since his appointment. The players are all over the place, no one seems to know what they are doing, its all looking like a mess.
    Get a proven Scottish manager who knows the game ffs. Depressed !

  26. This isn't Pedro's fault Warburton was the worst manager we've ever had he's left us in the shit. His players if we can call them that worst ever should be ashamed of themselves have let the club down badly. Hope Warburton fails miserably at Forrest as I'm sure he will he's still spouting same pish what we do learn from it ect ect!

  27. I tell you what BRUNO ALVES brings to Scottish football and i fear this the most more top footballers to Selltic as they see BRUNO ALVES plays here and they will want to come here to.

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