Why some Rangers fans are getting frustrated with Stevie Ger

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Why some Rangers fans are getting frustrated with Stevie Ger


Steven Gerrard was explicit on his appointment that he’d picked up aspects from all of his managers during his playing days at Liverpool. That his own style would incorporate what he’d learned from the likes of Gerard Houllier, Jurgen Klopp, Brendan Rodgers and Rafa Benitez, to name a few.

But if one thing has been cropping up in the past week, especially in response to the rather painful afternoon at Almondvale (we still call it that), on top of many others, it’s been the aspect of coaching he appears to have taken from Rafa that sticks out the most, and which most Rangers fans agree has been a tad saturated and become counterproductive if the result at Livi is anything to go by.

Rotation. Rotation. Rotation.

Lord knows we at Ibrox Noise and everyone else in football knows the game is a modern place now with a much more contemporary language (what the hell is ‘pitch geography’ for heaven’s sake, and can someone explain how ‘transitions’ made its way onto a football field?) than what us older Bears are accustomed to, and rotation of squad has become ‘a thing’, but there comes a point when a coach is cycling his squad for rotation’s sake sacrificing continuity.

When Rangers’ team for the clash with Gary Holt’s men was announced, the borderline ‘fanfare’ was over the absolutely staggering eight changes which had been made from the win over Ayr midweek.

We know a number of these were ‘cup competition’ related, of course, but many of them appeared quite simply a bad idea.

We also know it’s a squad game these days, and coaches more and more seem to want to get as many ‘minutes on bodies’ (seriously, modern jargon leaves us cold) as possible, so they want to introduce fringe players more and make the whole squad involved, giving as many individuals ‘pathways’ (this lingo is doing our head in) to the first team as they can. We do get that.

But the frequent swapping and changing of players regardless of form is not what Steven Gerrard’s MO was – indeed, his original promise was to play those who clearly wanted it and were hungry and in form.

And his lack of sticking to this, particularly in recent weeks, may have led to Sunday’s dismal atrocity especially.

Stevie needs to stick to basics of football management as well as the modern and more ‘complex’ nuances of it. Play your best players, in the best form, and stop chopping and changing all the time.

Fans are especially disappointed about this in defence – personally we don’t care for any excuses Nikola Katic gave about disliking plastic pitches, he should have started on Sunday, and messing around with the fullbacks too isn’t a prudent move. The back four, one or two dodgy matches aside (Motherwell away and Killie in the cup) have been pretty good – but disrupting that in recent times for the sake of ensuring Joe Worrall gets minutes doesn’t wash with us.

We were always clear that while we needed the defensive depth to support Goldson and Katic, they shouldn’t just be getting played for the sake of it – if our first two choices were fit and in form, they should remain in hold of the jersey.

And this applies to the rest of the team too.

In short, Stevie, quit messing around with rotation, pick your best team and manage on a game by game basis to optimise for that.

Is that too much to ask?


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10 COMMENTS

  1. Spot on,been talking about this all day with fellow bears and others from the dark side,he has to stick with same 11 if possible and not the shite we keep hearing or reading about(rotation)if he doesn't change and turns out to be a stubborn cunt,
    then I'm afraid no 55 won't be happening this season and so on…..

    Get it sorted Mr Gerard… watp helicopter 2005

  2. Obviously many of the players have a clause in their contract that obliges SG to play them in a certain amount of matches?

  3. To be fair to SG, he didn't change his team for Livingston.
    He changed it for the Cup game, to rest some players. This is necessary when you are playing 60 games a year. You have to keep players fresh. You could wait until they are knackered, then bring in disgruntled players who have felt left out. Not sure that improves a team much. Also, he then changed it back for the league match.

    So if we are annoyed, it is not with Livi changes but cup changes. I think he was wrong re Katic, because we were playing a team that hasn't lost since matchday 1.

    But I agree that rotation is necessary. Would just rather he bled players in against bottom 6 teams to begin with.
    RTID

  4. He has to keep rotating to make sure the loan players get the required ammount of minutes or we have to pay the fines. One of the many reasons i hate these loans.

  5. That Livi game has cost us dearly. I think the primadonnas threw their dummies out, because it was a plastic pitch. Canny prove it, but suspect it.

  6. To be fair to him, he felt the need to rip it up from last year. not an easy thing to do in ur first real managerial post, especially a club of such standing trying to restore itself back to being the dominant force. ideally, he could have been in rodgers position where all he had to do was add 2 or 3 of quality to a very squad. unfotunately his hand has been forced with injuries to key players who may have featured reguraly ie, jack, dorrans, murphy, not to mention suspensions ect. in what's been a hectic few months. If i had one complaint it would be his peristence in playing morelos or his refusal to take him off when in games it is clearly not going for him. The manager should be bold enough to try and utilise his forward thinking players and to be able to adapt when needed, ie. middleton, candieas, grezda ect. The training ground is where this should be experimented. having just wrtten an essay and putting things into perspective, rodgers has had it easy by comparison for 2 years domestically and taken them as far as he can.If we hold the same beleif as we did on helicopter sunday and ignore the fickle few we will roar them to glory. worst case scenario we fall just short, but determine who wins it if hearts maintain it it to the end, what goes around comes around as they say.RE:last day v abedeen.

  7. 1. Ejaria and Worrall have Loan Clauses

    2. SG Needs to Stop Messing with The Team!

    3. If Katic had been playing vs Livingston, We would not have lost.

    4. Don't Give "Fringe" Players Minutes for the sake of It.

    5. League Games should have been Identified at the Start of the Season as THE most important thing.

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