I think the answer can be found in the method and/or style of play that went a long, long way in helping us snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at the final hurdle. To put it bluntly, if you don't go out and deliberately try to win games then you deserve all you get.
It's not about me trying to be wise in hindsight here, because no one more than me went along with the highs that came about with the first three rides on this season's CL Helter Skelter.
But it is hard to argue in hindsight or not, that we had more than enough chances to progress and we blew every, last one of them. But it is an historical thing and the couple of minutes between Darcheville's quite preposterous miss and Lyon's second goal was not about summing up this season's CL campaign; this was the perfect encapsulation of Rangers in Europe over the last half a century. You should all know the drill by now and why anyone can be surprised anymore is what surprises me.
Of course there has been harsh luck, especially this week, when with JCD still struggling with injury, Walter had no choice but to go with the now thoroughly disenchanted Daniel Cousin, whose first half display should see him banned from training and never allowed to wear the jersey ever again.
It may well be argued that Cousin never said the things attributed to him, and that it was nothing more than a nasty concerted press effort here in Scotland to spread some discord among the playing squad in the run up to our most important game of the season thus far. Tell you what though; IF that is indeed the case then Walter has to go for the journalists involved. Then again, Walter should have stood up for his players when Boruc accused them of spitting on them in October and he refused to do so.
Then we have the playing errors; McGregor lining up Govou for a snip when if he had let the ball go, then there is no goal. Do these players not talk to each other? Then there was Whittaker's howler that let the Lyon player in second half. There was Cuellar's amateur like performance at the second goal. We could even throw in Hutton being dismantled defensively with Juninho's through pass three minutes in, which could have had an even worse bearing on the end result. And for the record it pains me to criticise Hutton in the CL this season.
But these inadequacies only cover up for the fundamental tactical errors of the management. The bottom line is not once did Rangers try and exploit the goalkeeper who may well be the WORST ever goalkeeper of a top team we have witnessed at Ibrox.
Whittaker had a softish, down the middle strike straight at the French goalie in the first half that was dealt with in 'girly' fashion. If Whittaker's effort should have been the signal for various assaults on the French goal, then the cross from Hutton in the second half that ended with another goalkeeping flutter and another howler from Whittaker should have seen an all out bombardment of Lyon's goal.
So how did this non-combat come about? Well I blame it on players being told to keep to a certain specific 'keep it tight' game plan and not having enough belief in themselves to change the game as it progressed on the pitch.
Remember, football should always be about improvisation and judging a match on its own merits as the play progresses. For instance, Forty-three years ago, Rangers and the yahoos contested a League Cup final.
With Rangers on top in all departments, the yahoos decided to swap their wingers (Jimmy Johnstone and John Hughes) to the other side of the park. Up until that point, the Rangers full backs (Davie Provan and Eric Caldow) had the measure of their opponents.
So what did Rangers captain, Jim Baxter do to combat this tactical pincer movement? Well, what he did was just switch Rangers full backs too. His reasoning was; if Davie Provan is not giving John Hughes a kick of the ball down the left, he won't give him a kick down the right either. His reasoning was; if Eric Caldow has the measure of wee Jinky down one flank, he'll be the measure of wee stinky down the other flank as well.
What I'm trying to say here is that tactics, either nearly fifty years ago, or in the present day rely on everything conforming to a pattern. Real life very rarely gives you that advantage. So the bottom like to all this going off tangent is, we missed a chance last night with a dud, foreign goalie, because we kept to a set game plan and that is treasonable in my opinion.
So, as I said the CL dream for this season is over, but it has been a dream that has come at a cost. And sod the negative press diatribes on our even more negative on field tactics. I'm talking about the amount of league points shipped either side of the CL games.
For me, Walter HAS to regain the title this season. He's had more money than the 'French dud' to deliver, he's had more than enough points dropped by the filth to help him deliver. There can be NO excuses not to get that title back home.
The Rangers support expects - Walter
The Govanhill Gub