BBC pundit claims Rangers midfielders are all inferior to Celtic counterparts after Viaplay Cup final loss
No Rangers midfielders from the Viaplay Cup final line up are good enough to get into the Celtic team, according to Tam McManus.
Michael Beale’s selection in the middle for the 2-1 defeat at Hampden Park on Sunday (26 February) has been called into question after he left out January signings Todd Cantwell and Nicolas Raskin.
John Lundstram started alongside Glen Kamara with Malik Tillman further forward, but the decision didn’t pay off and his side were 2-0 down and chasing inside an hour as a result, but BBC pundit McManus has gone one further and suggested the whole unit is inferior to their Old Firm rivals.
Speaking on the PLZ Soccer Football Show on Monday (27 February) McManus said: “None of the Rangers midfield would get a game for Celtic.
“I look at the Celtic midfield, I look at McGregor, [Aaron] Mooy, [Matt] O’Riley and [Reo] Hatate. None of the Rangers midfield are any better than they four.”
Mountain
On their day the Rangers options can turn it on and boss a game but there were plenty of fans who felt they were too one-dimensional as far back as the summer.
It was certainly the case when Beale arrived back in Glasgow, with the opening months of the season under Giovanni van Bronckhorst having made the case alarmingly clear.
The new boss then signed Cantwell and Raskin in January, with the latter finally arriving having been linked for multiple transfer windows, and both have started life at Ibrox strongly.
So it was a surprise for the pair to be left on the bench for the start of the cup final and the improvement after they came on, albeit immediately after the side had been given a lift by Alfredo Morelos’ goal, suggests the decision was the wrong one.
However good Rangers’ players are only really matters currently in comparison to those at Celtic Park, because it is them who are going to need to be beaten to redress the balance in Scotland.
And the fact that three of the four Hoops men that McManus mentioned only arrived in the past year is not a glowing endorsement for the recruitment at Ibrox in recent times.
The failures in the transfer market essentially threw away the position of dominance that was established with the 55th title win, and is going to need to improve markedly going forward, but with doubts over the money available to spend that remains a major point of contention for Gers supporters.
In other Rangers news, Chris Sutton claims Beale could “learn a lot” from opposite number Ange Postecoglou.