Patrick Stewart’s to-do list seems to lengthen by the day with the Rangers CEO having to deal with the dismissal of a manager only weeks into his tenure.
Philippe Clement has been sacked as Rangers manager with no immediate announcement on who his replacement might be.
The club has several options, with Steven Gerrard already mentioned as a possible interim boss, however, whoever replaces Clement on a permanent basis must make these three changes for Rangers.
Three things next Rangers manager must get right after Clement is sacked
Stewart has confirmed that the club will no longer sign players on the whim of the manager, instead, a proper player trading model will be followed.
Rangers’ squad needs a lot of work and quality players will need to be signed, but there are other requirements too.
Appoint a new captain
Regardless of individual form, how nice a guy he is, or how well he looks after the younger players or new arrivals, James Tavernier is the poster boy for failure at the club.
No Rangers captain has seen Celtic lift more trophies or seen off more managers and, as his 34th birthday approaches this year, the time is right for a change.
Some would argue that it was right a long time ago.
Change tactics and approach
In most weeks, it doesn’t really matter if the formation is 4-4-2, 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, because possession is dominated and the opposition put 10 men behind the ball.
What is important, is an understanding of the Scottish game, of mentality, intensity and physicality.
Celtic don’t have a big, powerful team, but they never get bullied like Rangers did off St Mirren.
They also don’t play to their opponents’ strengths, have a forward line packed with pace and constantly look to get in behind teams.
The Scottish Premiership table suggests that they know what they are doing, Rangers need to stop trying to reinvent the wheel.
Employ a structured coaching team
One of the issues with Clement was that his coaching team didn’t seem to have anybody who excelled at anything.
Alex Rae was staunch, Stefan van der Heyden was his mate and Brian Gilmour made a good impression setting up sessions when Clement first arrived and managed to keep his job.
Issame Charai has only been at Rangers for three weeks and arrived with a growing reputation following his success with Morocco Under-23s.
If Nils Koppen has identified him, then there is every chance that he will stay.
Clement’s replacement can’t be allowed to hire such an entourage.
A set-piece coach, and an assistant manager or head coach along with Charai should be more than enough.
From this, the head of performance and head of medical shouldn’t have anything to do with the manager and should be club appointments to maintain consistency and reduce injuries.
For too long, changes to the manager and fitness staff have had the opposite effect on the conditioning of the players.
There are other things that could have gone on this list, however, having the right staff, the right captain and the right tactics would be a start.
