Rangers 0-1 Celtic: Huge summer ahead for Michael Beale as big mistakes cost Ibrox side
- Published
Summer rebuild will be 'biggest in years' for Rangers - Beale
When Rangers gather as a grim collective to analyse what happened to them at Hampden on Sunday, they won't need coaches and tactics boards to tackle it. They'll need couches and psychologists - lots of them.
Their Scottish Cup has gone, their season is done, their spirit was broken again in this fixture. That's four cracks at it in the Michael Beale months and no joy. That's a decidedly average Celtic second-half performance that they couldn't exploit, a sitter they couldn't convert, some other chances they couldn't force past Joe Hart.
No amount of smoke billowing from any number of flares could obscure the reality of this Scottish Cup semi-final, a truth that has played out time and time again this season. Rangers are in an endless cycle of 'what if?' matches against their biggest rival.
What if so many of them weren't rendered statuesque in the pivotal moment of the semi-final? What if Borna Barisic and Nicolas Raskin and Ryan Kent and James Tavernier weren't so comatose in the face of Daizen Maeda's speed of thought and Jota's cleverness of movement?
What if Fashion Sakala had converted his sitter instead of blasting it into the side netting? What if Tavernier's shot had hit the post and spun in instead of hitting the post and bouncing out? They can wallow in what-might-have-beens for an age. What if they hadn't switched off so badly for Celtic's first in the 4-0 at Parkhead? What if Jon McLaughlin hadn't gifted David Turnbull for the fourth? What if Alfredo Morelos hadn't given it away to Maeda for Celtic's opener at Ibrox and what if an entire defence hadn't switched off for Kyogo Furuhashi's equaliser?
A poorly defended cross from the right in the League Cup final and a goal. Another defensive lapse on the right and another goal. Yet more weakness and mind-numbing mistakes at the back in the 3-2 in the league. What if Ben Davies hadn't done what he'd done at Celtic Park? What if John Souttar hadn't done what he had done?
And now the continuation of a theme: Rangers blunders exploited by an alert Celtic attack, Rangers profligacy down the other end stymieing them in their hope of defending their trophy.
This was another Celtic victory by a goal. On the face of it, some of the more optimistic souls at Ibrox might try to convince themselves that they're getting closer to Ange Postecoglou's team. That's a one-way street to delusion. In the aftermath, Beale more or less said the same.
'Rangers need dramatic surgery'
If they have sense, his board will listen to him. The great imponderable is how much can they afford to back him? What does a rebuild budget look like at Rangers? How much have they got? They have multiple players on lavish wages who are out of contract in the summer. Those millions will help recast the team, but pretty much every move they make needs to be astute. They must look at Postecoglou's unerring accuracy in the transfer market with some jealousy and awe.
In his 10 Old Firm games, Postecoglou's signings have contributed heavily. Kyogo has scored five goals, Jota now has four, Liel Abada has three, Reo Hatate has two. Tavernier is the only Rangers player who has scored two or more in those games and he has been there for a relative eternity, a signing from another era. And yet the goals burden still resides with him, a full-back, more than any other player in blue.
It remains the case that Carl Starfelt has scored as many goals against Celtic as Morelos or Kent have since Postecoglou arrived. It also remains the case that Filip Helander, out injured for a year, still has the same number of Old Firm goals in the last two seasons as any Rangers midfielder or striker. In statistical terms, these matches are more often than not settled by a goal but that margin, in real terms, is far greater than that.
We know what Celtic are like when they fire on all cylinders in these games, but resilience gets them through as much as class. 'We never stop' is a mantra they live by, not just a catchy slogan to hang on a dressing room wall. Maeda showed the truth of it in the most instructive moment of the afternoon. His thought process, his appreciation of what was on and his accuracy in the cross was all done at breakneck speed, the kind of powerplay that did for Rangers yet again.
Alfredo Morelos was substituted off at Hampden after failing to make an impact against Celtic
When Celtic play with lethal purpose, they win. When it's a more even affair, they still tend to win. When they're below par and under pressure, as they were for much of the second half at Hampden, they still come out on top. Rangers can't kid themselves into thinking the gap between them and Celtic is closing just because Rangers had the better of a second half. This Rangers team needs dramatic surgery.
This was another non-performance from Alfredo Morelos. Beale started him hoping that he would transform himself overnight, surely knowing that Morelos no longer has the capability to do so.
That's another Old Firm game that's passed Ryan Kent by. For quite some time, he has made the Rangers starting team on reputation alone. Kent has scored 28 domestic goals in more than 160 games for Rangers. Jota now has 23 in less than two seasons at Celtic. Beale threw on attacker after attacker as the second half wore on, but none of them were good enough.
It was an exercise in desperation at that point. He spoke in the aftermath about how his players gave him everything, which could be taken as a euphemism of sorts. Most of them might have given everything they had, but their everything continues to fall short in defeating Postecoglou's team.
The treble is very much on. A place in the Celtic Park pantheon is within touching distance. For Rangers, the view from the doldrums is dark.
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