Good Summation Of Our Season

From: http://www.tellhimhespele.com/the-league-1-end-of-term-report-card/

Rangers (1st)

C

What to make of Rangers’ season, then? Based on nothing more than their league campaign, it must be marked as an unqualified success. The Gers coasted through the season unbeaten, collecting 102 points from a possible 108 and scoring 106 goals along the way. The expression “you can only beat what’s in front of you" springs to mind and in that respect, both the players and the management should be satisfied with their efforts. “It has been a terrific league campaign and I thought we finished it well," said Ally McCoist after their trophy presentation at the beginning of the month.

Yet Rangers’ season is judged on much more than their league form. Given their vast budget – the second highest in the country, lest we forget – there are a number of factors to take into consideration: the quality of their signings; their standard of performance; results in cup competition; and, given their financial travails, the emergence of youth and its integration within the first team. On almost every level, the club failed to reach these targets. McCoist may have been proud of his efforts over the course of the year (he sounded as though he was trying to convince himself) but his team achieved the bare minimum once again; for the sums of money tossed in the direction of the playing squad, it just hasn’t been good enough.

McCoist recruited well enough over the summer and strengthened a number of problem areas. Cammy Bell was an upgrade on Neil Alexander and enjoyed a fine season; Bilel Mohsni, for all his carelessness, could be a solid centre-back; Nicky Law’s early performances set the standard impossibly high and although his form tailed off as the conclusion approached, he was generally excellent throughout; and Jon Daly, run into the ground by the end of year, provided an additional dimension to the team’s attack, even if it wasn’t always the easiest on the eye. But players like Arnold Peralta, Stevie Smith and Ricky Foster failed to successfully augment the squad, with the latter in particular failing to convince at any point.

Flushed with the excitement of the new season and a new group of players, Rangers turned in their best performances at the opening stages of the campaign. Brechin City, Airdrieonians, East Fife, Arbroath and, in particular, Stenhousemuir were all soundly thrashed. At this point, the Gers looked exactly like what they were supposed to be – a full-time side mucking about against the country’s unambitious social clubs.

But the good times didn’t last and by around November, a malaise appeared to envelope itself around the club. The team were still winning – they dropped their first points of the season on Boxing Day against Stranraer – but they played without direction or conviction. There were a number of factors for the decline – McCoist’s lack of tactical acumen was the most obvious hindrance to his side’s progress and the manager often set up his team incorrectly without the foresight to make the necessary changes. Players were often deployed our of position for no discernable reason – Peralta arrived as a pugnacious anchor man but was played on the flank, while Andy Little, on the occasions he was selected, was stationed out wide rather than through the middle. A lack of motivation could have also played its part in their mediocre displays but when the manager is rewarded with a salary of more the £400,000, maintaining the players’ interest should never have been a concern.

Rangers reserved their poorest performances of the season for the cup competitions. A defeat to Forfar Athletic in the first round of the League Cup was almost immediately forgotten after McCoist rounded on former chief executive Charles Green who, ironically enough, had suggested that winning the league and nothing more would not constitute a successful season. The team failed to deal with Gavin Swankie’s clever movement in attack and eventually lost out in extra-time.

The nadir – and maybe the lowest point of McCoist’s tenure as manager – was the failure to overcome Albion Rovers in the Scottish Cup quarter-final at the first attempt. Moving the centre-back Mohsni into attack may have yielded a controversial equaliser but for the best part it was desperate, ugly stuff and as with so many other occasions throughout the season, they were unable to counter opposition who sat deep an invited pressure. They eventually triumphed courtesy of a replay and progressed to a semi-final with Dundee United – that the Rangers players ran about a bit and showed a level of effort sorely absent from the past few months belied the fact the United were the superior for the large majority of the contest. It was described as one of the team’s best displays of the season but it highlighted just how impoverished the support had become.

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