It’s fair to say the previous manager did some things right early doors. He came in, made cuts, and oversaw a shift where Rangers weren’t simply chucking money around. And even after that, we were still operating in a bracket that should have had us well clear of most of the SPFL, and at least in the same ballpark as Celtic.
That’s where the frustration really bites. If you’re not miles behind financially, and you’re still falling short consistently, then it’s not just about budgets. It’s about the football decisions, the approach, and the willingness to react when the game starts heading the wrong way.
The bit that never changed
The line that sticks with me is the idea that plan B was basically “do plan A better”. There’s a certain purity in that, I suppose. But at this club, with the scrutiny and the week-to-week pressure, it’s also a gamble you usually lose.
Because Scottish football isn’t complicated, but it is ruthless. Teams will sit in, break up rhythm, target your build-up, and make it ugly. If you keep turning up with the same patterns, the same spacing, the same tempo, then managers will clock it and players will feel it. You can almost sense it from the stands when a game is drifting: same passes, same areas, same outcome.
Opposition weren’t guessing, they were planning
When folk say opposition managers targeted our lack of adaptability, that rings true in a way Rangers fans have watched for ages. If you know the shape won’t change and the substitutions won’t alter the picture, you can coach against it. You squeeze the wide areas, force play inside, block the obvious lanes, and wait for frustration to set in.
And when Rangers get frustrated, you don’t just drop points. You end up chasing games in a way that makes you easier to counter. It becomes a cycle.
Danny Rohl has shown the value of reacting
The contrast with Danny Rohl is that you can see the tweaks. Not always massive wholesale changes, but enough to affect the flow. Little adjustments that say: right, that’s not working, so we’ll shift it. We’ll change the press. We’ll alter the angles. We’ll respond to what’s actually happening in front of us.
The Celtic game is the obvious reference point from the fan view, because those are the fixtures where predictability gets punished quickest. You need flexibility, a bit of pragmatism, and the nerve to alter things during the match, not just talk about it after.
We’ll never know how it might’ve turned out if the previous manager had softened his stance. But we can judge what happened. And sadly, the results and the lack of adaptation weren’t good enough. No bitterness in that, either. You can still wish him well and accept it had to change.
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