Unfortunately for Rangers fans, it has been a less than perfect start to the 2023/24 Scottish Premiership campaign for manager Michael Beale, and after last week’s round of fixtures, we now sit in fourth place in the Scottish top flight table with six points from four games.
With two league defeats to our name so far, we have also slipped into the Europa League following the very heavy defeat to PSV Eindhoven in our Champions League Qualifying Play Off tie, and it fair to say that Beale is beginning to feel slightly rising pressure from some quarters of the loyal fan base, as well as from some sections within the Scottish press.
With the international break now with us, things will be a bit tense until proper football returns but for those fans who like a flutter, the international games shake things up a bit and you could also just play roulette online for fun.
Whilst we are certainly not at that point yet, and there are talking points and issues from the last match that need addressing, such as the decision to allow the Video Assistant Referee system to overrule referee Don Robertson’s original on pitch decision – well, strongly encouraged him to reverse that decision and Kemar Roofe’s goal for a bizarre foul in the build up – Beale does need the team to show a reaction in the next few matches and get us fully back on track and for those confident we will do just that, there are various types of bets punters can take advantage of in the next few months.
With the words coming out of the players, particularly in James Tavernier’s post game interviews, it does, however, seem that the players are determined to do just that and show that these defeats have just been an early season blip, and Tavernier certainly does not want to hear booing like that again, as he knew it was fully justified.
“Well, it’s justified. It’s as simple as that. We didn’t get the result the fans wanted and it’s totally justified. The dressing room is obviously disappointed. Angry and disappointed. You’ve just lost to your rivals. It never sits right. So we’re all really disappointed and we fully understand the fans’ frustration. First half, we weren’t good enough. Second half, a lot better but we’ve got to be more clinical in the final third.”
Tavernier went on to say.
“It’s obviously international week and everyone knows the lads who will be going away and we want them back fit and safe. But it’s down to us boys who are still going to be here to correct things, work hard on the training pitch and moving forward we have to obviously get better with what we do.”
Former Australian defender, and a former skipper for us at Ibrox, Craig Moore, was even more scathing about the performance levels on the day, and he felt that Beale now needed to have an almost perfect run into Christmas to turn this around and lift the pressure that is now building on his shoulders.
“The concerning thing was Celtic were nowhere near full strength and Rangers were virtually at full strength at home. It wasn’t good enough. I was at the game and coming out of the stadium there was a lot of supporters who were really unhappy with the performance, his selection, the situation. It’s a tough situation because, once you get the swell of support against you here, then it could be very, very difficult to come back from. He needs a near-perfect run between now and Christmas to be able to turn this around.”
Let us see what the next few fixtures bring.