Neil McCann’s words yesterday about Michael Beale were absolutely bang on, and we do wonder if the manager now does indeed regret his decision.
Beale famously said he ‘dingied’ the second leg in Switzerland between Servette and Genk because he felt it would be a ‘wasted journey’ – we’ll be honest, we’re not sure why he would say scouting his opponents would ever be a wasted journey, and it’s not what we expect of a diligent Rangers manager:
“I was due to go to Brussels last Wednesday for the Servette game but chose not to because Jose was arriving and I wanted to be here. I was glad I didn’t go because the sending-off after two minutes, there is not too much you can take from that game. We will go back to the first match.”
Instead Beale remained at home to welcome Jose Cifuentes.
Now the reason this is a problem is Beale’s reasons for it being a wasted journey was that the opponent went down to 10 men, and what can you ‘take from that’.
Well, following a red card for the visitors last night, the answer, as McCann rightly implies, would have been a tonne, and it’s not the first time Beale’s decision-making has let him and the club down.
As many Rangers fans pointed out, the side’s performance v 10 men actually deteriorated badly in the second half, and Servette will be delighted with the overall score – it is their first 90-minute defeat in quite a while, but they may be marginal favourites now going into the second leg.
And none of it was helped by Beale neglecting his duties as manager by welcoming his shiny new toy to Rangers rather than doing proper due diligence on his work by vigilently scouting his opponents and preparing. Instead, after 20 minutes last night, Rangers’ performance levels dipped, and once Servette were down to 10 men, they were arguably the better team.
This is another one on Beale, we’re afraid. He keeps making rookie errors, silly mistakes, and generally hijacking his own creation.
Is he Rangers manager material? Most fans seem not to think so, but there’s ‘give him time ffs’ and all that?
How much time does he get…