Quarterly season report: are Rangers good enough?

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When Rangers lost at Easter Road on Sunday week, to call the reaction a meltdown was putting it mildly.

Many fans turned on players, on each other, and suddenly Rangers were terrible and all hell had broken loose.

After one league defeat, a great number of supporters decided the team was awful, and a great number of the players simply were not good enough.

And yet, it is worth noting the one thing everyone often forgets is just how far this outstanding Rangers team, assembled in barely two month, has exceeded expectations.

Before the season started, no matter who the team had consisted of, if Rangers fans had been offered two defeats and 17 wins of (obviously) 19 matches in total, to suggest supporters would have bitten arms then shoulders off for that would be the understatement of the year.

But the fact that this XI is essentially a completely new team, comprising of players who mostly had never played together before competitively when Rangers travelled to Easter Road and demolished Hibs 6-2, promotes the belief that two defeats all season (to an excellent St Johnstone side, criminally underestimated, and a close thing to an in-form Hibs) is a stunning achievement.

There is an element of ‘spoiled’ about some fans who, admittedly buoyed by the stunning early season scorelines and form, expected this brand new Mark Warburton team with only one pre-existing starter (Lee Wallace) to keep rolling everyone over with style and panache.

I always warned readers and fellow fans that the form was not sustainable – these are people, not machines, and they will not play like Barcelona every match. And indeed, it does seem that Rangers have been through a bit of a lull over the past month or so. Guess what? To come out of a lull with 7 wins (it probably started in Dumbarton) and two losses (to aforementioned strong teams) remains excellent and better than we could have dreamed of.

All fans pray for those kind of results when their team is playing badly.

But I reiterate – this is a brand spanking new XI, playing their first season as a unit. McKay was barely part of the McCoist Rangers, Miller has been in and out, and Shiels too is a sub.

That these players have suffered just two losses and won the rest is outstanding – any supporter demanding more is just being unreasonable.

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6 COMMENTS

  1. Rangers are definitely good enough to get promoted. The level of trust and belief that the overwhelming majority of our support has in our management team is self evident. The team is performing well for a work in progress. I would think that Messrs Warburton and Weir know exactly what will be required to continue to improve the playing style and instill the ruthless winning mentality which Rangers demand. The next few years will be enthralling!

  2. I totally agree, the Rangers of the past few seasons have been a shadow of what I expect of this club and I for one am relishing this new found stability and expectation surrounding the clubs performances on the park. The current management and playing staff have exceeded my expectations and will easily get promotion. We will see continuing investment and improvements to enable us to compete at the highest level next year, and I for one cant wait WATP!!

  3. Agree with all comments, and the article. As Roonknock says, W&W will know where they want to and have to improve the squad and the team, probably much better than us. They are professionals. What we miss in the big picture, they see.
    People are out of contract in the summer. Some will be kept, some won't, depending on what they can offer us going forward. Loanees will depart, have loans renewed, or be released by their clubs and sign for us. Players will be sold because other teams see the value W&W have released in those they have brought in and will pay highly for them. Youth will be promoted. Gaps will be filled with signings, in January and June, that have been scouted, assessed and valued as players and teammembers.

    All of this is normal. God, isn't it great to be normal again? 🙂 I have faith in W&W. How many of their signings have been duds? Not one. I would be happy with 4 good, 3 decent and 3 duds out of 10. Only Wallace remains a first choice and there is not a single dud in the new players. They are all decent, good, or slaveringly "Where the f*** did we find him" bracket? I will admit I had reservations about Waghorn. A decent pro who will work but not deliver enough goals, I thought. And after a month, I thought I was right. But the Magic Hat saw something else. He saw that with stability, faith and encouragement Waggie would flourish. His movement, strength, teamwork are fantastic. You would need to find a place for him even no matter who you signed. If we have a weakness, I feel it is in the goal suppply from our other forwards. McKay has recognised this and will work on it. Others need to do the same, or W&W will replace them with people who can, or can learn to.

    The future is bright, it's wonderful. The weekend can't come fast enough, when was the last time we all felt that?

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