TIME TO TAKE STOCK
We were well hacked off, of that there is no doubt, but I detected a broody mood of resignation about it all.
As we were herded back towards our buses by the most OTT police presence I've ever seen at an Old Firm match, there was no call for the manager's head, no indignant demand that certain players should never wear a blue jersey again and only a few growls about the tight-fistedness of Murray and Bain having inflicted another embarrassment upon us. We went to the Piggery expecting nothing, we got nothing and we were just keen to get away from the place, back to civilization, where we could discuss the thing rationally and figure out where we go from here.
As I suggested in my weekend preview, we may have to put this season down as one of transition, with PLG putting together a new squad which might take a while to bed down but, with the benefit of some time together, things will be sorted out and we will be in better shape next time around. Hey, it isn't the ideal solution, far from it, but I'm afraid it looks like it is the one we'll have to stomach.
With Ra Sellick and the Jambos beginning to put daylight between themselves and the Gers, each and every game is now a pressure game. The need to kill off Molde as early as possible on Thursday night is clear, otherwise my old bones will start rattling, and as the woolly lot are due at Ibrox on Sunday, no doubt ready to raise their game again and edge us back towards mid-table, there is no margin for error. However, we don't look as if we are ready to set off on a long winning run so the prospect of us falling further behind in the weeks ahead is more probable than possible.
I think we would all agree that the quality of football we have been seeing is a big improvement in what we had to watch towards the end of Big Eck's reign. Unfortunately, one or two wee basics – putting the ball in the net at one end and keeping it out at the other – appear to be beyond us. It won't have slipped many Bears' notice that Saturday was our fifth consecutive blank against our nearest and dearest rivals, yet they can hardly claim to be watertight at the back.
For all the possession we had, especially in the first 20/25 minutes of the second half, we just seemed content to knock it square or play it back, they were quite prepared to let us do it, there was no killer pass, no end product, with only Dado's late header and Boydie's shot off the top of the crossbar giving them any brief worries. Whereas, when they had the ball, they had the physical presence of their Dutch basketball player and the pace of Turncoat Kenny (another one!) to cause us lots of problems.
We weren't helped by the absence of Jeremy Clement and the fact that Baz is struggling to recapture his touch left us without any creative spark. Was PLG in too big a hurry to bring the skipper back into the side? It looks like it to me. He held the ball well in Norway but in the other games he has looked out of sorts and was twice caught out for pace at the weekend, when sent through on goal by Dado but beaten to the ball by their religious zealot of a goalkeeper and again when Miller left him for dead for their second goal.
Burkey worked hard, as always, and was capable of stretching the Septic defence but Dado and Boydie weren't mobile enough to give the wee man a target to hit. Then again, when McManus and Caldwell have a grip of your jersey, it isn't easy to be mobile. I felt if we had a more nippy player around the box, Thomas Buffel or maybe even Nacho Novo, their defenders would have needed to work a bit harder and might have been more inclined to be caught out.
For all my worries about our defence, we weren't ripped apart there, as many so-called experts had predicted. The first goal was down to us playing too much football in the wrong area – how many chances did we get to clear it before the Bigot got his cross in? – and the second came when we were on top and had pushed too far upfield in search of the equalizer. Clearly somebody was well out of position when Baz found himself to be the last man at the back.
This is all very depressing stuff to write (aye, and it ain't much fun to read either, I can hear you groan) but I refuse to believe we are not making progress. The shape of the side looks good, although there are questions about the individuals filling some of the berths, and I have complete faith in Le Gaffer's ability to sort it out. He may well have misjudged some aspects of the Scottish game, especially opponents' inclination to raise their game when facing the Rangers, but his football know-how will find solutions and I'm confident the ‘Paul Le Guen, you're having a laugh' line, which the Scum Of took great delight in belting out, will be turned on its head sooner rather than later.
For now, there must be a lot of straight talking done at Auchenhowie. The manager must make it perfectly clear what he is looking for, the players must be willing and able to deliver – if not, January's signing targets must be identified NOW – and it wouldn't do any harm to let us punters know the long-term gameplan. We're not really big on patience but, if we know what is going on, we will be more inclined to give PLG the time he needs to get it right.
So instead of looking for scapegoats and giving gutter press hotlines and radio phone-ins more credibility than they deserve, it is time to circle the wagons and have the debate within ourselves. We all expected things to be a lot better at this stage of the season but maybe the new man inherited a bigger mess than even we expected and it might take a wee while longer to turn the thing around.
Paul Le Guen will do it, of that I have no doubt. A coach of his standing doesn't lose his touch overnight and, while it isn't too obvious at this particular moment in time, I'm sure he is preparing our team for a big push back to the top. And as he is more likely to bring in players who have yet to hit their peak (Clement, Sionko, Papac), than those who have already seen their best years elsewhere then moved to the SPL for one final big pay day (Gravesen, Thingmybobby Of Yonplace), once back at the top of the heap we are likely to stay there for a while.
Various Press Gangsters are now drawing parallels between today's Rangers and the Freckled One's teams and it has surprised (and disappointed) them that we have not been as hard on PLG as we were on his predecessor. Don't fall into that trap, Bears. Big Eck had close to five years to make his mark and, while there were some good times along the way, we were no better off at the end of his reign than we were when he took over. Le Gaffer is laying the foundations to take us on to a new level and, if it takes him a year longer to point us in the right direction, I'm prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Under McLeish we went for short-term fixes, all the Murray-Bain regime would permit, and we are suffering for it now. The old one-game-at-a-time adage has some merit to it but a club with real ambition has to look at the big picture and that can be our only consolation on this bleak Monday morning.
Keep believing!
LITTLE BOY BLUE