Walter Smith lives by the adage that no Rangers manager is ever more than three games away from a crisis.
I don’t think many Rangers fans believe Gerrard has a crisis on his hands, but the past seven days shows how quickly football can turn on its head and how naturally savvy Walter is in his philosophy.
After Rangers 3-0 Livingston, everything looked rosy in the garden. The squad rotation and game management looked to be in the process of a seamless transition from the previous title-winning season.
Three games later, all the hallmarks of last season’s consistency have disappeared. The defence looks remarkably slack, the composure has disappeared, and players look lost as they attempt to slot in and out of the team.
Against Malmö at Ibrox, Rangers threw away a criminally good position. At half-time you could almost hear the Champions League music. A goal up and a man up at the halfway point should simply never end in a loss. Regardless of the possible difficulties of playing against ten men, the idea a far superior team with eleven men lose is not an option yet Rangers ended up in that position after facing Malmö.
Between minutes 47 and 57 over two legs, Rangers lost four goals. It may be a coincidence, but it seems unlikely all goals over two games occurred in the aftermath of half-time by chance. Rangers’ defensive fortitude abandoned the team during that short period of each leg and shortly after, a relatively straightforward shot at the riches of the Champions League was gone. A slackness clearly sets in after half-time that Rangers cannot allow to become a regular feature.
What happens now purely remains in the hands of Steven Gerrard. Three years of perfection in European qualifiers have been obliterated during the first taste of Champions League qualifiers and it’s difficult to argue against the idea that the team froze when faced with the premier European competition.
To avoid this horrid start seeping into the league form requires Gerrard to make difficult decisions and quickly.
The hallmarks of 2020/21 are already struggling under all evidence of 2021/22. It requires strong management to realise this season cannot actually follow the last one. To at least steady the ship, Gerrard needs to start instilling different hallmarks to get the team back on track.
Rangers should settle on a starting XI for three or more games. When a club is comfortable, it is very easy to move players in and out of the starting XI. When a team looks shaky and is suddenly out of form, the rhythm that allows changes disappears. Gerrard made numerous changes between Malmö, Tannadice and Ibrox, and each time some of the changing players have struggled to fit in. Rangers’ strength in depth is very impressive and in the long term it should be utilised again, but right now Gerrard needs to settle on eleven players who can rediscover some confidence and get the team back on track.
That will come with some difficult decisions, but it should start with a run in the team for the defensive partnership of Goldson and Helander to build some consistency and strength from the back. In the midfield, Gerrard needs to find a trio that strikes the correct balance. Each selection to date has felt like it’s lacking something and it has been too flat. Does the manager allow Barisic and Kent to play through their poor starts or does he show them they need to work harder to stay in the team and give them some time on the bench?
It’s incredibly frustrating that Rangers have hit a wall so early in the season. The fans haven’t even had the chance to celebrate last season’s incredible success and already the team are faced with a series of must-win games. There is no scope for Rangers to drop points in the run-up to the Old Firm and the group stages of the Europa League must be reached to soften the blow of a sudden Champions League exit.
Gerrard and his coaching staff have plenty of credit in the bank to be trusted to get the team back on track and they should start that by dropping the rotation: move towards the game against Celtic with a similar team in each game.
Malmö should have been the match to kick start the season, all roads now lead to that fixture being the Old Firm game on the 29th.
Gerrard knows that as well as anyone and his preparation has suddenly become even more crucial.
Three games can make a crisis, the next three games can also allay a lot of growing fears.
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