Despite the loss at Ibrox to Celtic, Graeme Murty has urged his players to block out ‘the noise’ from outside the dressing room from columnists, papers, sites like this and concentrate on their own games.
In a slightly strange address, the manager spoke of how the players should ignore the negative comments, despite repeatedly slamming them in post-match interviews himself.
The Rangers boss arguably finds himself under mild pressure for the first time, and while his sometimes curious comments previously were overlooked (Celtic Park’s atmosphere is second to none, anyone?!) because he was learning on the job, and was still caretaker, Sunday’s defeat has changed the landscape a tad along with his being judged differently as semi-permanent boss. Now his comments are combed over to a much greater extent.
He said:
“We have to make sure that as a group we don’t allow the noise outside to come inside. I have said to the players that every single man and his dog, who has an opinion, who is an expert, will write their column and will say all these things we didn’t do and that I didn’t do, that I needed to change this and I needed to do that and that is fine, that is no problem. What we have to make sure is that this group stay strong and all of that noise outside can stay right outside because we know the distance we have come, we know the progression we have made and we can’t afford for one negative to derail everything.”
Fair enough – a manager should always protect their players from criticism where possible, but this does seem a little odd given he joined in with it. To play devil’s advocate though, this defence does seem very much about himself and the criticism he has correctly faced about the defeat; and to his credit he accepts the right of sites like ours to express those opinions.
He just does not want it to affect the group. We also see no issue with that. We are just a little bewildered as to why one minute he attacks the players then the next appears to complain about the effect any attacks could have on the group.
One thing about Murty – he certainly keeps us guessing and thinking!
Murty has a lot to learn about being a Rangers Manager his comments and press interviews are often uncontrolled and erratic. Walter would never do this he needs to take council form Jimmy Nicholl who can help. As far as the noise goes its typical and quite amusing given the fact that we really rattled them both before and for large parts of the game itself . Even Brenda smugness had slightly disappeared for short while when the 2nd goal went in . Lets gather ourselves for the Semi and really concentrate .. we know it can be done . Ignore the rest of the pish please guys
Murty should be given the job full time and have our total support. But..I would like to hear him admit he made mistakes during that game (subs too late) or at least tell us his thinking for the delay. I'm delighted Jimmy Nichol is there to assist but then I think why didn't Jimmy tell him to change it? Were murty n Nichol the only people in the stadium who thought we didn't need to change things? Acknowledge it, learn from it, move on! WATP
I'm not sure that Jimmy Nichol has the clout to make in-match suggestions, which would be very disappointing if true. You don't really see them deep in conversation during matches.
Has any of my fellow bears on here seen Roberto Martinez wife Beth in Scotland recently??
He will be looking for a job after the WC and his wife's Scottish.
As much as I like Murty he got it all wrong on Sunday, his bench was a joke and not counteracting there sub was very poor.
He needs a few years as a number 2 as Walter had to.
Congratulations to DJ getting a call up for the Wales national team.
Would Rather Tuchel' over Martinez ✋
I don't know what his wages would be, BD would have paid him a decent salary I would imagine!! Both would give brenda food for thought.
Murty as an apprentice manager SHOULD be listening to what fans have to say about the team AND especially the games…he doesnt have to change things BUT the info he gets from different people WOULD help him make better decisions. Especially after the last game against Celtic….wrong decisions were made during that game,hopefully he will realize that AND will change things during games as required.
No he shouldn't be listening to what the fans say. I bet if you rounded up half a dozen fans and asked them how they would run the club, you'd get half a dozen different answers. Times that by 50000… 100000 – you get the idea. There's no way he could accomodate every single opinion.
Fact is, he put out – on paper – the strongest team he could've at the time, barring any injured/ineligible players. I bet that 95% of the support though "Yep, that'll do" when they saw the team sheet. It isn't his fault that half of them decided not to turn up after the game started. Yes, he could've changed things earlier (after the red card perhaps) but we had more of the ball at that point and more of the play and with an extra man, we should've won the game.
I'm as disappointed as any other Bear at the score as I thought we had the game won. But we need to cool the head and hope the team can pick themselves up. Celtic won by employing Walter tactics – the same tactics referred to as 'anti-football' in the Smith years, but a 'masterclass' when Rodgers employed them. Hopefully we've learned from Sunday and can go forward and (hopefully) win a place in the cup final after winning at Hampden.
Good God mate have U listened to some of the loonies on here alone,
If he listened to them we would be religated to the Highland Leauge!!!
think murty is doing ok he has the players attention ,think he is doing too much talking dont let oposition know what your thinking ,i dont like giving people more than two chances to get things riight ,will be a big game for murty semi final .but would back him for another year let him get his own team together its clear he does not rate any of our central defenders .im looking foward to next season murty has earned another season.
I am very much in agreement with you Stevie and have been disappointed with how much detail he gives the media of his players, formations and tactics. He would be well served by giving far less interviews of his time and content. Let the team's results speak for the manager not platitudes and excuses. Forget telling us how loud the Ibrox roar is, we were beaten.
Murty does not have the ability, experience or bottle to take Rangers to the next level. We will always be a second rate team below shellic if he continues to manage us and will be fighting second place.
I want us to win the league! Murty is a lovely fellow doing his best and gives it his all, but his all isn't good enough. Keep him full time, and we will waste next season as well, and you might as well gift the beggars the 10 in a row, cause Murty wont stop them!
For an Inexperienced Manager,
Murty has done a decent enough job but as the other comments on here go …
Murty isnt the man to usurp Celtic
Murty isnt the man to win us a trophy
He isnt gonna take us to the next level
Stevie, "decent enough"?
I expect a damn site better from a Rangers manager and team!
You may be happy at mediocrity at Rangers, you might accept inconsistency and average players in our team,, but that attitude will have us fighting for second place for years to come.
Murty is not the answer. It's so blatantly obvious. I won't settle for second at Rangers, I want us to win the league, not Molly coddle players for playing rubbish!
think we have makings of a cracking team ,were only a couple players short would love to see moult ,plus kipre, mgeough ,at rangers .
gers,jimbo give murty a chance hes only been in the job few months hes done very well in transfers cummings docherty who i think will be scotland player for years to come ,very little money ,get rid dead wood ,give murty 10 million for 4 good players next year then judge him hes earned it give him the job before semi ,lets go rangers .no surrender
Murty is too nice, he is excellent at saying the right things to the media and I believe it is similar with tactics, knows what he wants but struggles to understand what to do if the game plan does not work. A lot of people seem to think we were unlucky on Sunday, to a large degree they are right, however we were also luck to an even larger degree, playing an opponent with a third tier goalie who had played how many first team games?? being gifted the first goal all be it Windass did tke the opportunity brilliantly then getting the opportunity to beat 10 men, 10 men who did not even take off a forward for a defender, think Murty missed that one or did he?? So I guess Murty will ignore this post with his players, but it will be easier in the semi-final, after all it will no doubt be easier against 11 and what will be an error strewn opponent.
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