Michael Beale, for the first time, has completely defied logic and facts and entirely defended his team selection, comparing Celtic to Hearts as justification for the failed XI he put out there.
Speaking after the latest painful afternoon for Rangers fans against Celtic, Beale doubled down on any suggestions he’d picked the wrong team, by claiming Celtic are on the same level as Tynecastle’s best and compared his expectations.
He said:
“That same team played ever so well at the Old Firm at New Year, it put in the best performance in terms of 90 minutes since I’ve come back away at Hearts. On that night, we were excellent. So we had our goals on the pitch. Tillman and the front three had been in fine form since I’ve come back, over 20 goals in that team that was there since I’ve come back, so it’s fine. You’ve got two players that have come into the club that played two-and-a-half games each against opponents where you’ve got the ball.”
That’s right, because the XI picked played a good evening v Hearts, Beale thought it acceptable to field them again against Celtic.
Now, it’s widely known Robbie Nielson completely screwed up his tactics that night, opting to ‘go for it’ without too much care for defending. He changed the system and the formation to try something different.
It completely failed and he dumped it.
Based on that night, Beale thought he could just do the same against Celtic, which is naïve and dim-witted beyond compare.
Beale’s arrogance and ignorance is full throttle here – a basic error of reading too much into an artificial win at Tynecastle and thinking the same system and players would be able to deliver against Celtic who wouldn’t be trying any experimental nonsense.
It absolutely failed, and more worryingly, Beale refuses to put his hands up and admit he effed it up. Instead he blames the players, saying they should have been able to do better. He’s not utterly wrong, the players weren’t at it, but to pin all the blame on them is poor leadership and the first time he’s resembled his old boss in throwing his personnel under the bus.
Beale has deeply disappointed us today – just as we were starting to truly extol him and vaunt him highly, he undoes most of the good he did.
He has a long way to go before winning our trust on the pitch again.