RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 2 sourcesWhere do you start? How do you catalogue the insipidness of Derek McInnes' Rangers team in Jablonec?
How do you catalogue the Pedro-Caixinha-in-the-bushes level embarrassment that the club experienced in their exit from European football on Thursday?
In Jablonec, Rangers were unspeakably awful, devoid of any cohesion, desire, threat, their manager reduced to saying how embarrassed and mortified he was multiple times post-match.
They had one shot on target the whole night, one goal scored in 210 minutes. Rangers fans in the stadium gave it to them with both barrels at the end.
McInnes apologised. The whole scene was cringemaking. He tried to explain what he was trying to do with his multiple switches of formation and attempted to explain why his side were "miles off it".
Talk is cheap in his position. There's a limited shelf life for that kind of thing at Ibrox.
The chat from some Rangers folk in the preamble was that the Conference League meant little to them, that an exit wouldn't spark an uprising, that no midweek European football could give them a chance to hurl themselves at the Premiership instead. Fine in theory, but not in reality.
The notion that a defeat would be met with a collective shrug by Rangers fans was never a serious proposition. This defeat sparked untrammelled fury.
McInnes would be as well staying away from social media. Winning in the bearpit of Pittodrie on Sunday is strongly advised.
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What are Rangers? What is their identity?
Rangers were so flat in the Czech Republic, meandering about like confused men, showing weakness in the tackle and not a scintilla of wit. McInnes changed the shape of his four or five times and the poverty of their play didn't improve one iota.
"I look at us now and I'm thinking, well, we're no' great as a possession-based team at the minute," said McInnes in explaining his constant switches.
"We're not a counter-attacking team enough, or effectively enough, at times. We don't look like a team who are happy when we go direct. And teams need to be something."
Quite. And what are Rangers? What's their identity? What are they good at? In what areas are they improving?
McInnes was appointed in June, had a full pre-season, had six games and then a week off to prepare for the trip to Jablonec only to produce their worst effort of this, and many other, seasons.
During the dog days of his reign at Rangers, Russell Martin was once asked if he could name one or two things that were better on his watch - and he couldn't do it.
If McInnes was asked the same question now then there's no guarantee that he would come up with an answer, or at least, an answer that rang true.
Nobody really knows what his Rangers are, least of all McInnes, you suspect. He made three substitutions at the break on Thursday, a trio that brought his total of half-time replacements to 11 in seven games.
That betrays a manager who has either got his team wrong in the first place, hasn't been able to impart his message to his starters or doesn't have a dressing room capable of taking in what he's saying to them. Whatever the truth of it, it's not good.
He knows what he wants because he watched it on television the night before. Hearts had four new players in their starting line-up against Rapid Vienna and used another two off the bench.
Wouter Vrancken, in quick time, moulded them together and made something terrific out of them in winning their own Conference League tie in Austria.
McInnes praised his old club for the resilience of their players and the stomach they showed for the fight. The inference being that his own boys had little or none of that. Again you ask, why not?
Vast periods of this play-off went by without Rangers stringing more than four and five passes together. They pressed in ones and two or not at all.
They came across as a team that had just met, a collection of guys rounded up in a pub and coached by a character who had no idea what to do with them.
Where was Raskin? And why not sign experience?
Ibrox is a confused place right now. McInnes said his team looked young and inexperienced against Jablonec. This was on the back of announcing the signing of a 20-year-old winger and - if things go to plan - a 22-year-old striker.
If they need gnarled operators then why not sign some?
There was no Nico Raskin, the midfielder left at home, not because there'd been a bid for him, said McInnes, but because there might be.
If there were was a decent offer and the possibility of higher ones, his absence would have been understandable. If there was no bid then why was there no Raskin?
He was missed, said McInnes. A player who performed well at the World Cup and he's left at home? Odd.
McInnes said that his coaching staff are "elite in everything we do" in preparing the players for games like this. That's a massive claim after losing the way they did.
The manager said that the responsibility for the failure was his but he repeatedly returned to how lamentable his players were. His players. Six of McInnes' signings started and another two came off the bench.
What has McInnes been doing with his expensively-assembled team. A dozen players have now been signed. How much money has to be spent before the manager starts to look convincing in the role?
The Rangers players who were on the field in the Czech Republic cost about £30m in transfer fees. The wage bill at Ibrox must be astronomical. They've now added the £8.5m winger Kim Min-su and may soon recruit a £9.5m striker in Kevin Kelsy.
The giant wad of cash splurged on all this would choke an elephant.
By contrast, Jablonec's record signing cost around £700,000. Their most recen...
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