Week one is never expected to produce free flowing football, however, Michael Beale will have to accept all the criticism that comes his way after Rangers defeat to Kilmarnock.
Bad luck or officiating can sometimes be used as an excuse but losing to a team with just as many new players built on a shoestring is unacceptable.
Michael Beale has faced Derek McInnes on numerous occasions and knows what to expect, and yet, Rangers still looked void of any attacking edge with major fan media outlet Four Lads Had a Dream left fuming.
Writing on X, Stevie Clifford, who has become a fixture at press conferences was scathing in his assessment of the lacklustre display:
“Absolutely dreadful, selection didn’t work, tactics non-existent and lost the fight, Beale got it massively wrong.
“Conceded a horrible goal and offered next to nothing up front, rebuilds take time, but performance was miles off and has been so far, miles away from good enough.”
Clifford is right.
Michael Beale must take his share of the blame for Rangers horror show
Everyone saw the issues with the selection before a ball was kicked.
Michael Beale can’t say he is going to play with the handbrake off and then leave Todd Cantwell, Ianis Hagi and Danilo on the bench.
Danilo is fitter than Cyriel Dessers both in terms of aerobic and match fitness, he has also been on form for Feyenoord before joining.
John Lundstram was, by some distance, our worst performer in pre-season and is hardly the epitome of a midfielder who plays on the front foot.
Hagi has also shown that he is a player who, when playing deeper, is willing to take risks with his passing rather than just playing from side to side and taking too many touches.
And that is just the selection.
Nothing changed throughout the game.
Michael Beale got pretty much everything wrong with how he set Rangers up.
We didn’t get behind Kilmarnock, didn’t create overlaps or any dangerous 1v1 opportunities.
Instead, the tactics (if you can call them that) appeared to be to try and play through Derek McInnes’s side down the middle – where they had three centre-halves and three central midfielders.
Rebuilds do take time but Kilmarnock had eight new players too and they seemed to know what they were doing.
The time for talking ended long before the board gave Michael Beale the players that he wanted to sign for Rangers.
There are no excuses.
