Michael Beale central to creation of a well-oiled machine
Rangers won the Old Firm derby through cohesion with credit owed to the first team coach, writes Paul Forsyth
Tuesday October 20 2020, 12.01am, The Times
In the build-up to the Old Firm game on Saturday, Connor Goldson was among those who got wind of the Celtic team. He had heard the rumour that Odsonne Édouard would miss the match and that young Stephen Welsh would make only his second appearance in the Celtic defence.
It seemed unlikely, as Goldson admitted yesterday. “I got on a coach and I had a message from one of my best mates down south who plays for Doncaster and he said Welsh was playing and Édouard wasn’t. I said ‘yeah good one, we’ll see when we get there’. Obviously, when we got there, the team was true.”
As the world now knows, it had been leaked on social media on Friday night. By the following morning, it was everywhere, much to the disgust of their manager, Neil Lennon, who has since promised to root out the mole. Pity the guilty party when Celtic’s manager identifies him.
None of which is to say that it had any effect on the outcome of the season’s first derby, won at a canter by Rangers. Speaking on talkSPORT yesterday, Goldson, 27, insisted it gave his team no advantage and that nothing in their pre-match preparations had changed.
Steven Gerrard, their manager, would have been foolish to let a rumour, which may have turned out to be a hoax, distract him from the job at hand. Instead, he concentrated on the shape and principles that have been so effective in recent months, and was rewarded with a comfortable 2-0 victory.
“Even in our pre-match meeting, we thought Édouard would play and we thought [Christopher] Jullien would play,” Goldson said. “A few of us saw the team but we didn’t really believe it. We know that in an Old Firm [derby], you can never trust anything that comes out. One day someone is injured and the next they’re playing. Listen, every player wants to play in an Old Firm. Whether they are injured or not they’ll try and get through it, so we went into the game thinking Jullien and Édouard would play.”
There was maybe a late tweak, and perhaps one or two additional words of advice, when the teams were officially submitted, but Rangers have come much too far to be basing their gameplan on an opponent’s weakness. On the contrary, they have a system and a playing style, that with the odd variation, works for them week-in, week-out.
As the fallout from the derby continues, one of the recurring themes has been the maturity of Gerrard’s well-drilled side. Whether they have better players than Celtic is a matter for debate, but each of them buys into the team’s philosophy and knows his job.
A “well-oiled machine” has become the cliche that best describes Rangers, whose team at the weekend were all signed during Gerrard’s first two seasons. To them, that 4-3-3 shape and all the responsibilities that come with it, are second nature.
It has dispelled early suggestions that Gerrard, 40, would bring to Scotland only the personality and profile needed to manage Rangers. He has all of that in spades, but his team are much more than a group of individual talents, inspired by one of the game’s greatest players.
That there is a sophisticated strategy, a clear vision of what they are trying to do, is a credit not just to Gerrard, but to the management team he appointed. His first-team coach, Michael Beale, will have been quietly purring about the recent appreciation of their tactical work. He is the one who gets in among the players, tightening the nuts and bolts.
He is highly-rated on the training pitch. When the Brazilian, Rogério Ceni, came to England for a coaching course, he saw Beale take a session with Liverpool Under-23 team and, after a lengthy discussion, asked him to be his assistant manager at São Paolo. The former Charlton Athletic winger spent seven months there.
When he returned to Liverpool, Gerrard was in charge of their under-18s. Pretty soon, they were heading north to Rangers together, where they put in a recognisable template, influenced by their education at Anfield. Overlapping full backs, midfielders providing them with cover, narrow wingers: all have become hallmarks of a Rangers team that is impressing the purists.
Maurice Ross, the former Rangers full back who is now reserve team coach at Motherwell, yesterday spoke of the regime that is bringing the best out of Gerrard’s players. “Do you ever see Rangers’ midfielders sprinting because they’ve been caught out of possession?” he asked. “Never. They’re constantly jogging, they’re just in perpetual motion because they’re all in sync. They’re always so calm. For me, they’re the best-coached team in the Premiership.”
Some of Rangers’ best displays have been in big games. They have now outplayed Celtic in three consecutive derbies. Gerrard has suffered just five defeats in 35 European ties, form he will be keen to maintain in Belgium on Thursday, when his team play Standard Liège in the Europa League group stage.
Last season, Rangers’ weakness was their inconsistency against lesser opponents. With that at the forefront of their minds, Goldson knows it will take more than a convincing performance against Celtic to bring the club a trophy.
“Old Firms are the hardest games but at the same time they are easier because you don’t need to get everyone up for them. This season against the other teams we’ve been a lot better. We need to carry that on. I can see there has been a mental change within our changing room that winning an Old Firm game isn’t enough. Hopefully we can back it up and by the end of the season we can celebrate.”