MUCH of the thinking behind appointing Russell Martin as Rangers head coach adds up. No matter what the slaverers of the online lynch mob may say.
The club needs a defined style of play. He brings that. They need intensity. He describes that as one of his non-negotiables. They need to find a way to break down teams who play in a low block. From the analysis presented from down south, his sides appear to have a pretty good record on that front.
His man-management is seen as a strength. That’s also going to be vital in rebuilding a dressing-room low on confidence and introducing the swathe of new players badly needed ahead of the new campaign.
Russell Martin ticks a lot of the right boxes but needs a plan B for playing in Europe
Rangers boss Martin requires a replacement for right-back James Tavernier
There are a couple of things that aren’t going to wash when it comes to the 39-year-old former Southampton boss, though. And he needs to get his impressively-coiffured head around them quickly.
First up, James Tavernier has to replaced at right-back. And, secondly, you are not going to dominate things the way you want in the games that really matter in Europe, so you’d better start changing the habits of a lifetime and get working on a different and effective Plan B.
There’s been a lot to chew over in the wake of Martin’s unveiling at Ibrox on Thursday, but the noises made over these two issues have surely raised some red flags within even the more moderate members of the fanbase.
With Tavernier, the situation seems clear. There was a period over the course of last term where he had to be left out of the team under the failing Philippe Clement because his performance levels had dipped and supporters simply weren’t having him any longer.
The guy will turn 34 pretty early in the season. He is not in a position to turn the ship round here. He has served the club well, but his time is up. His powers are fading, his offensive stats no longer counteract his defensive frailties.
In a short interview put out on social channels on Friday, Martin opened up by stating that Rangers needed ‘new energy’ and ‘a fresh start’. That was his opening gambit. He then described Tavernier as ‘hugely important’ and went on in other interviews about how he sees no reason to change the captaincy.
It is hard to see how ‘new energy’ and ‘a fresh start’ squares with sticking with a Rangers skipper who has won three trophies in seven seasons and lost the backing of a huge rump of the support, but there might just be a little bit of reading between the lines required here.
Martin did qualify his remarks over keeping Tavernier as captain by stating that decision is valid ‘if he’s playing’. Listen, he can always hold the position of club captain – very different from on-field captain – whether he’s in the side or not.
Tavernier has struggled when up against the pace of Celtic forward Daizen Maeda
In the last year of his contract and looking at a testimonial, he can be a source of guidance in the changing-room, a shoulder to cry on, a voice of experience, a sounding board for Martin during transitional times. That’s for sure.
What he cannot be, though, if Rangers are to put Celtic properly under the cosh and continue the club’s impressive rebuilding of its reputation in UEFA competition, though, is a first-choice pick.
He’s been torn apart too many times by Daizen Maeda. Rightly or wrongly, he has become something of a scapegoat too. Martin has a big enough job to do in winning round his own critics without hanging his hat on Tavernier as an on-pitch presence.
One high-profile mistake early in the campaign from him is all it will take to turn things toxic and Martin simply cannot afford that. When it comes to Europe – and not just those immediate Champions League qualifiers – he cannot afford to be too wedded to his ideals either.
What the former Scotland cap brings to the table looks to be exactly what Rangers need for domestic competition. Celtic are not the big problem at the moment. Two wins and a draw from the last three Old Firm games tells you that.
Their Achilles heel lies in being unable to get the better of the likes of Hibs, St Mirren and Motherwell. They need directness and vigour and clinical instinct instead of tippy-tappy brainrot. They need lock-pickers, bottle-openers, killers. They need the relentlessness that has been missing for quite some time now.
At home, Martin’s ideas and background seem fine in principle. They are not fine for Europe, though. And Europe, despite the understandable obsession with wresting the Premiership title back from Celtic, remains crucial. Not only for the obvious financial incentives it brings.
Russell Martin will need to show tactical flexibility as Rangers head coach
When word first broke last year about the consortium involving Andrew Cavenagh and 49ers Enterprises seeking to take over, connected people talked about their interest in future cross-border competitions, new opportunities that may lie either under or outwith the umbrella of UEFA.
It wasn’t something they were preoccupied with, by any means, but something they were decidedly conscious of.
European football will continue to change and evolve and expand. That’s 100 per-cent certain. And if the likes of Rangers and Celtic want to benefit, they need to keep their profiles up. They need to carry on punching above their weight and staying in the limelight.
Since the days of Steven Gerrard as boss, it is one thing the Ibrox outfit, for all their trials and tribulations on the domestic front, have excelled at. Europe was put front and centre of the club’s ambitions under Gerrard because of the money it could bring in, but it is likely to serve other purposes, too, in this unfolding American Revolution.
The problem is, if Rangers are going to keep the torch alight, they are going to have to keep beating teams with bigger wage bills than them. Like Fenerbahce. Like Borussia Dortmund. Like RB Leipzig. Like Galatasaray. Like Porto.
Martin wants his side to dominate games, he says, but that simply isn’t going to be possible in these fixtures. Plan B cannot just be doing Plan A better, as Mark Warburton used to say in some of the baddest of the bad old days.
Martin is going to have to find another way to win. He’s going to have to dig in, use the counter, be adaptable. Even the greatest idealists have to rejig their philosophies and live in the big boys’ world sometimes.
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has adapted his tactics for European football
Brendan Rodgers woke up to the need to temper his all-guns-blazing approach towards the end of his first spell at Celtic. Second time round, following a backs-to-the-wall draw at Atalanta in the Champions League, he joked about his critics not feeling he was pragmatic enough.
Even Ange Postecoglou, dreamer of dreams, giver of light, guardian of purity, came to the conclusion that stinking out the place with Spurs was the best way to beat Manchester United in the Europa League final just gone.
In stepping up to the Premier League after winning promotion with Southampton, Martin stuck to his guns and got the sack after racking up just one win – over Everton – and 13 losses in 16 games. Manchester City beat his team 1-0 at the Etihad, but all the other big spenders banged in multiple goals against Saints.
He wasn’t helped by his director of football Jason Wilcox jumping ship to Manchester United before the grand return to the top flight. Bad recruitment killed them there. And that where Martin’s relationship with new Ibrox sporting director Kevin Thelwell takes on massive importance.
If Rangers are going to make a fist of it at home and abroad next term, they need many new faces capable of hitting the ground running. Signing strategy has to be spot-on after years of patchy, disjointed nonsense.
Where to start? Right full-back, of course. As a matter of urgency.
Adam Idah has struggled to justify the £8.5million Celtic paid to sign him from Norwich
Idah has stated his case but Celtic need a better option up front
PLENTY of fast and loose stuff has been written about Adam Idah’s big night out in Glasgow in April that ended with a video popping up on Snapchat, appearing to show him vomiting out the door of a car.
Who can say conclusively whether he was drinking or not? Who knows for sure if things were really as messy as they looked?
Listening to Idah talk about the fall-out whilst away on international duty with the Republic of Ireland during the week, though, just placed further doubt on whether this guy is going to cut the mustard at Celtic despite his £8.5million price tag.
Idah’s defence of his actions seemed to focus on the assertion that he’s no different from anyone else and should be allowed a day out on the town with the boys every now and then.
‘I will be videotaped, but, at the end of the day, I am a human being,’ he said. ‘I go out. I’m not a robot where I have to stay inside all the time.’
There’s just one problem with this. If you want to make it to the top of professional sport, simply being human isn’t enough. You need to strive to be superhuman. Even to make it big at a non-elite outfit like Celtic, there is a discipline and control and commitment required. For example, there doesn’t seem to be anything on the internet about Callum McGregor going out on the tiles in the week of a game. Day off or not.
Idah has stated his case and that’s fine. Meanwhile, Celtic’s search for a new centre-forward ought to be stepping up a gear.
Substitute goalkeeper Cieran Slicker had a disastrous debut for Scotland against Iceland
Scotland are treading water under Clarke
CIERAN SLICKER brought a welcome dose of hilarity to Hampden Park in the 3-1 friendly loss to Iceland on Friday night.
Without the Ipswich Town goalkeeper’s madcap performance, the urge to cry when watching this current Scotland side might have become too great to resist.
We have our best midfield in decades with the likes of Scott McTominay, Billy Gilmour, Lewis Ferguson and John McGinn plus a terrific talent in Lennon Miller entering the fray.
Yet, all around them, time is taking its toll. The goalkeeping situation, with 42-year-old Craig Gordon still the best option when available, is dismal.
Andy Robertson looks like being replaced at Liverpool, our centre-backs aren’t getting any younger – or faster – and Kieran Tierney’s return to Celtic from Arsenal feels like an exercise in resignation rather than ambition at the age of 28.
Let’s hope Ben Doak can bring something back to the mix when fit again, but there’s a real lack of punch and depth up front too.
And at the head of affairs is Steve Clarke, a bloke running down his contract who should have been escorted politely to the door after Euro 2024.
Clarke deserves credit for getting the country back to major competitions. We had a chance to really achieve history under his reign. But we didn’t. And that’s looking like more and more of a tragedy as we all tread water together.
