When your record in Old Firm derbies is similar to that of Graeme Murty and Pedro Caixinha, you, as Michael Beale’s does for Rangers, have a problem.
Excuses can be made for the quality of the squad that lost to Celtic on Sunday but, of the nine substitutes, eight of them were full internationals.
Only Scott Wright, who has started a European final, wasn’t.
Michael Beale, aside from Kemar Roofe and Tom Lawrence was able to pick an, almost, full strength starting XI with key players to call on off the bench.
Pedro Caixhina lost all three of his derbies, Graeme Murty managed a couple of draws, and aside from being on the wrong side of a hammering, the current boss isn’t fairing much better.
Even the much-maligned Giovanni van Bronckhorst managed to beat Celtic with a squad that was weaker, and without a striker – he also won a trophy.
Beale’s record in cup competitions over his two spells at the club now stands at a shocking zero from 11 attempts
Blame can be attached to the effort levels of the likes of Alfredo Morelos and Ryan Kent or the quality of Fashion Sakala.
There is also nothing that the Gers boss could do about half the team switching off rather than playing to the whistle as players are taught when first learning to kick a ball.
Michael Beale is under pressure to deliver at Rangers
That’s now four games where Michael Beale has failed with Rangers to beat Celtic and for all that he might not have lost three or four nil, we have only looked like winning one of them.
To make matters worse, Joe Hart has barely had a save to make other than from set-pieces.
Writing on Twitter, in reply to a post by the Four Lads Had a Dream blog, Heart and Hands’ David Edgar made a more than valid point in reference to our recent woes:
“It’s the silver bullet thing. If we could just make one change and it fixes everything. Sadly we can’t.
“That said, we have to be a realistic. A Rangers manager can’t continually lose to Celtic and not be under pressure. It’s just a fact.”
Edgar is right. Beale IS under pressure.
Rangers could easily have ended this season with two trophies and renewed hope as we did under Alex McCleish, however, Celtic are now going to be even more confident going into next season.
They know that they don’t need to play well to beat us.
Both Hampden encounters have seen us contribute to our own downfall and miss open goals, whilst they barely got out of second gear.
Beale, undoubtedly, needs better players but he also needs a better game plan.
