Yesterday’s win over Hearts shouldn’t be either over or underestimated. Let’s not make up nonsense that this ‘wouldn’t have happened under Michael Beale’ because it did on his first few matches. Beale’s side leaked goals and scraped ‘big’ wins in the early spell of his tenure, so the overreaction from some fans that this is a ‘new’ mentality is emotional but not quite accurate.
The win didn’t change anything in terms of our squad, and what our new manager needs to do with it, but it did close the gap to 5 points which was a massive statement in itself. It was absolutely must-win, and we did so, fighting to the death.
What was pleasing was how Clement’s substitutions, particularly Danilo, helped sway things – Rangers looked a bit more coherent once he was on, with a target man the midfield and defence actually trusted a bit, unlike the shaky Cyriel Dessers who has deeply struggled for form and fan favour since he arrived.
But as we say, let’s not try to claim this win was unlike anything we saw under previous managers – we have seen wins at the death before, this is not terribly new.
What would be new is consistency. Winning when playing well, winning when not. In that sense we’re delighted with the potential improvement under this manager. We had a great match v Hibs, and much more like what we sadly expect v Hearts.
What we can absolutely tell is that despite the win, and despite all fans being thrilled with a huge 3 points, the squad is absolutely abysmal, and we really hope this manager is starting to get a picture now of who simply doesn’t cut it.
He’s managed us for three matches now, and that’s a reasonable amount of minutes to assess what players aren’t good enough, although more games will still be needed.
What we hope for soon is a real overall change to the XI. And that will come with the return of injuries. Tom Lawrence is back in training, and we hope to see Rabbi Matondo and Jose Cifuentes follow suit. We’d like more bench players starting.
Because as things stand, the available XI is stale and needs changing. But the boss will know.
He’s just happy he got the 3 points and a good mentality from the squad to fight till the death.
But there’s only so far you can go with Dessers and Lammers in the XI.