Rangers shock: could Pedro drop star man?

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Rangers shock: could Pedro drop star man?

When summer marquee signing Bruno Alves was taken off injured a few weeks ago against Thistle in the League Cup win, it sprung a surprise opportunity for young Ross McCrorie to see out the rest of the match, including, as it transpired, an extra time period.

The young Auchenhowie graduate excelled and impressed all around him, aiding his men see out the match via an eventually comfortable 1-3 scoreline, and the 19-year old earned rave reviews and calls for a shout against Celtic.

Ibrox Noise was derided for supporting this notion, and as it turned out, he was one of our best players in a match best left forgotten otherwise.

However, the man he replaced, Alves, is back and fit and assuming Pedro plays his preferred first-teamers, we have to assume he will start.

Or will he?

With Alves returning next week from international duty, and only just having regained fitness after that calf injury, might Caixinha take the strong decision to bench him and continue on with McCrorie?

Alves has not been impressive since his arrival in Govan – few Bears would argue with that opinion. His CV is stunning and we have huge respect for his career, but his performances thus far have been less than inspirational and we have to call that.

Ergo, is there a very real chance he could miss out on a number of levels (form, rest, fitness) and McCrorie retain his place?

It is even possible fellow injury returnee Danny Wilson may find himself called into action for the trip to Perth to partner Fabio Cardoso – and while there have been a few criticisms of some aspects of the 23-year old ex-Vitoria de Setubal stopper’s recent displays, he is someone who has impressed most fans by and large since his arrival and is likely to retain his place on the right.

So could Alves lose his, and McCrorie remain selected, or Wilson take that berth?

Caixinha has a heck of a lot of selection dilemmas. Defensive midfield we have covered, and the space behind Morelos is one we shall look at in due course too.

But a team is built from its defence – whoever the pair at the back ends up being on the 13th, we must hope Pedro gets the call right.

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14 COMMENTS

  1. It would be absurd not to select Alves when he is fit, because McCrorie isn't in the same class. We already will have Jack missing for a must win game, why would Caixinha want to make our starting line up even weaker?

  2. Playing 3 at the back would help to ease not having Jack in the team. I would play Cardoso, Alves and McCrorie, with Tavernier & John as the 2 wing-backs.

    with Cardeias, Holt, Dorrans and Nemane in the middle of the park. and Morelas to lead the line with the midfield helping him at all times.

    • You should take over this page for utilising all valuable resources.

      No way should we drop McCrorrie. Too often we have wasted rising stars when there is ample opportunity to avoid this scenario.

      Declan John also should definitely maintain his place for excellent professionalism since he arrived.

      Your choice of formation is commendable

  3. With the defensive weaknesses apparent on both flanks – we need a 3 at the back – any 3 from the 4 you mention

  4. Alves has been better than Cardoso by far. If McCrorie stays then it will be Cardoso who gets the chop.

  5. Think McCorie has to fill Jacks boots with Bruno back to CH.
    Young Ross has played there several times before so easy one for the manager that one!!!

  6. McCrorie showed his schoolboy immaturity against Hamilton, he was gash. He bottled quite a few tackles, he cant jump and header a ball out at set pieces, he gave the ball away many times as well as gifted them a penalty. In the shellic game he let Griffith in for the second goal that killed us! Now, I see potential in the lad, but I think he needs to continue in the under 20s as we can't afford to continue dropping points just cause its good to develop youngsters! We need to be realistic if we want to catch the beggars. If you want Rangers to play in the bottom six, then by all means, play the youngsters!
    With Alves, I think he has misjudged the physical demands of the Scottish game, he said so himself. I had said from the beginning this guy cannot hold a full defence all by himself, he needs good players round about him also, which he does not have. Cardoso, Wilson wouldn't get into my team either. But we have to deal what we have, but I would put in Wilson and Alves to see how they get on. I've been saying for years we need height and strength in centre halves. If you look at the goal against us v Hamilton again, our defence is a feckin joke!!!

    • DC number 1.& Jimbo, I agree with Cardoso Wilson too would never be my first choice. To be honest, I have yet to be convinced by this 'master' Alves either so No Young Ross is certainly going to make errors but he must be given a fair crack at it after the ability he has shown.
      F**k knows some of the clowns over the last five years have been allowed so much longer because of the connection to the management or was a favourite with the fans because he said the right things.

      Let the boy have a run of games and then judge him, please?

      The Academy has produced precious few, but such as Burt, Hardie, Barjanos and Maybe Beerman have to get the same affordability as the guys drafted in like Kiernan who could be mistaken for a footballer if you are related to Stevie Wonder. That bollocks of a man was given more chance than all our youth guys.

      Jimbo and Mr Cooper #1 I tend to agree with nearly everything you produce but not on RM guys
      Sorry

    • Brian, I respect your views and I did say that I see potential in the lad. We need to protect the lads confidence in the game and to continue playing him in the first team whereby he makes more mistakes and 50,000 fans booing him for those continual mistakes, could do him more damage than good to his confidence as a player.
      He is too young to handle that pressure as he does not have the consistency or talent (yet) to be a first choice centre half for Rangers first team. If we were 30 points ahead of the beggars, I'd play him every week in some capacity, but unfortunately, its likely we will be 30 points behind them by xmas, so we need our best (and I use the term loosely) centre halves out there so we can at least get 2nd place. I'm a fan of Beerman and MCrorie, but we need to protect and nurture them properly to develop.

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