It’s been a while since we did a ‘things we learned’ biopsy of a big Rangers match, but yesterday’s dire showing in Mount Florida merits it.
So Ibrox Noise brings you 11 things we learned v Celtic:
1: Michael Beale was the biggest architect of this fail, as he was in January. Back then it was hijacking his winning XI with bad subs, this time it’s starting a bad XI in the first place. Beale put Rangers on the back foot before the match even kicked off.
2: Some Rangers fans are not fit to wear our shirt or follow our team. The utter neds who started chanting BB during the applause for Ron Gordon can kindly go and follow someone else. We suspect the UB once again, who were earlier seen outside Hampden having a ‘square go’ with TGB. Abhorrent rubbish and a group we had a sliver of respect for previously are just an immature stain on the club now.
3: Malik Tillman is deeply, deeply overrated, and he’s not got a very good attitude either. Lazy, wasteful, and he thinks he’s better than the club. Beale sang him far too highly, gave him an ego, and that was yet another of Beale’s many media errors. Todd Cantwell is a much much better player. And he actually wants to be here.
4: Fashion Sakala also believed his own hype and failed miserably. The press surrounding him pre-match was pressure he made for himself, and he had to deliver. He didn’t.
5: Ryan Kent is getting a bit of stick but he was one of Rangers’ fractionally better players. Two wild and wasteful shots aside, no one got more of the ball than he and no one tried to make things happen more than he did. He even hit the post. He will always be a scapegoat but for Ibrox Noise he can hold his head high.
6: Rangers’ defence as a whole was solid, a lot better than fans are arguing. The weak spot was Connor Goldson, who let the others down not once but twice. Ben Davies had a strong match, and neither Barisic nor Tavernier had poor matches as full backs.
7: The subs were far far too late, and showed Beale’s arrogance in refusing to admit he’d choked another Celtic match. He got the XI wrong, and left it WAY too late to change it.
8: Michael Beale talks absolute garbage. But then that’s not really something we learned is it?
9: Rangers players and the manager not staying for Celtic’s trophy presentation was poor – but then they refused us a guard of honour for 55 so we guess pettiness is on both sides there.
10: John Lundstram was especially unfit, and while we know he’d have given it all to play, Beale’s judgement in starting him was dreadfully poor. But was Lunny honest with his gaffer?
11: Rangers remain chokers on the big stage. We’ve not won a single truly significant final or Old Firm match for a very long time – we choked in Sevilla, we choked in the Champions League, and we choked v Celtic at Ibrox. The only big big occasion v a big side that we’ve triumphed in was the play off in Holland.
There are probably many more but we’re starting to depress ourselves.