Sportscene pundit baffled by Michael Beale decision to leave Todd Cantwell out of Rangers starting XI v Kilmarnock
Michael Beale should have included Todd Cantwell in Rangers’ starting XI against Kilmarnock, according to Neil McCann.
Rangers made a poor start to their Scottish Premiership campaign as they were defeated 1-0 at Kilmarnock, while Celtic got their season underway with a 4-2 victory at home to Ross County.
Attacking midfielder Cantwell was a surprise omission at Rugby Park, later coming off the bench, with Kieran Dowell among five new signings to be handed a start.
McCann was surprised to see Cantwell not among the starters.
“You win the league not just by beating Celtic or Celtic beating Rangers, you win by getting the job done against everyone else,” McCann said during his appearance on Sportscene on BBC Scotland (5 August. 48:45).
“All these guys are coming into Scottish football, playing warm-ups and it’s nice and it’s a slow tempo, when you come to the real stuff in Scottish football, it’s 100 miles per hour, people breathing down their necks.
“There’s a lot of games for Rangers, and he’s chosen for the likes of Cantwell not to start today which was a surprise for me, but there’s a lot of football coming up, no doubt Rangers will get better, but they can’t keep dropping points early in the season.”
Spot on
It is incredibly hard to disagree with McCann in what he is saying. Plenty of the club’s summer signings were involved against Kilmarnock as Beale looked to throw them in at the deep end, and this plan ended up backfiring on the manager.
Five of the Gers’ starting 11 on the day have arrived at Ibrox this summer and were making their competitive debuts for the club against Kilmarnock.
While Beale might be thinking it is better to get his new signings integrated as fast as possible, playing a group of players who are yet to play together competitively all at once can pose problems.
A winning start was crucial and the Rangers boss would have perhaps been better starting more of his players who know the club and the league, such as Cantwell, and bringing his new recruits on as substitutes until they become more settled.
The club are now already on the back foot and will need to turn things around quickly.
In other Rangers news, Chris Sutton has issued a warning to one of the club’s many new players.