Rangers are a ‘moments’ team – and Philippe Clement should be going MENTAL at their over-reliance on individual quality.
That’s the view of Andy Halliday who tore the ‘abysmal’ performance against Queen’s Park apart. We’re three days on from that cup exit at the hands of Callum Davidson’s team but the fan fury isn’t subsiding after one of their all-time worst results in the Scottish Cup. The Championship side managed just one shot all game but it was all they needed to down a toothless Ibrox side who couldn’t even muster a goal from James Tavernier’s late penalty, and got what they deserved for their profligacy.
It means they are almost certain to end the season without a domestic trophy, having lost the League Cup final already and trailing Celtic in the Premiership by 13 points with 13 games left to play. But Motherwell star Halliday, who spent five years at Ibrox between 2015 and 2020, reckons the true gulf between them is even more straightforward than that.
He said on Open Goal: “Rangers played with zero urgency until they went 1-0 down. I said this to my mate I was watching the game with, the urgency they played with at 1-0 down – that’s how Celtic play from the first minute. That’s how they blitz teams in the first 10-15 minutes, and that’s why opposition teams will say there’s a massive gulf between them, because it’s so much harder to play against Celtic.
“Queen’s Park had a clear game plan to sit and frustrate Rangers, low block. And because they’re not getting touches of the ball, Hagi, Igamane and Cerny are playing centre-mid, because they’re having to come to the ball.
“If you’re a manager, I’d be going mental there. If you watch Celtic, Maeda, Kuhn, Idah or whoever it may be, they’ll stay in their position, because they know with their set rotations and their good players, they’ll eventually get in good areas to go and affect the game.
“Whereas Rangers have always been a moments team. They always rely on individual quality to go and break someone down. That’s why Cerny has been a standout at certain times, because he can make something happen and unlock a door. It was an awful watch, Rangers were abysmal.”