Rangers crisis now on cards as Michael Beale gets it horribly wrong – Keith Jackson
Rangers already have a crisis on the cards after Michael Beale got his team selection and tactics “horribly wrong” against Kilmarnock, according to Keith Jackson.
The reporter writing in the Daily Record on Monday, (7 August, page 41) was left questioning why Beale had opted to leave Todd Cantwell out of the starting XI for the Light Blues’ 1-0 defeat at Rugby Park, as Rangers struggled to break down Derek McInnes’ side.
Beale decided to start Kieran Dowell behind a front three of Sam Lammers, Cyriel Dessers and Abdallah Sima on Saturday (5 August) with a crisis on the hands if defeat also follows against Servette in the Champions League qualifiers.
Writing in the Scottish newspaper, he said: “Beale believed that Sima, Lammers, Dowell and Dessers were better equipped than Cantrell to cause Killie concern but he – and they – got it horribly wrong.
“By sharing the load with the likes of Sima, Dessers and Dowell, Beale was effectively keeping his fingers crossed and hoping for the best, despite some fairly inconclusive evidence stacking up from all three in pre-season.
“With the heat cranking up the manager is surely unlikely to make the same mistake on Wednesday when Swiss side Servette arrive at Ibrox, looking to turn drama into a full-blown crisis by blocking the path into the Champions League.”
Cantwell has to start
Watching the Rangers display at Rugby Park genuinely felt like watching a side repeatedly hit their head against the wall, only to wonder why it was beginning to hurt. Beale’s side looked so far off the pace required to win the Premiership this season, with little to no creativity on offer.
That did change ever so slightly when Cantwell entered the fray, as he looked to get on the ball in his typically busy fashion and attempt to drive the Ibrox side up the pitch and towards the Kilmarnock goal.
The question will be why wasn’t that the plan from the start of the game? Cantwell was the main man for Beale last season having joined the ranks in January and should have surely been one of the first names on the team sheet for the trip to Killie.
As Jackson suggested, the importance of Wednesday night’s fixture was just multiplied as not only the Gers’ future in the Champions League is on the line, but the line between calm and crisis is also being straddled. For it to lean more to the side of calm once again, Cantwell has to start the European clash.
Whether or not the former Norwich midfielder does play, Beale needs to win and likely comfortably remove the target from his back.
In other Rangers news, one of the Ibrox side’s official partners took to Twitter to rage after Saturday’s defeat