Michael Beale's Rangers challenge is not experience - Joshua Barrie

Having rebuffed an approach from Wolves only weeks ago the pull of Ibrox appears to have proved too strong. Speaking to the Rangers Review this summer, Beale said “nobody turns down Glasgow Rangers” – and that reality has come to pass.

But is this the right appointment for Rangers? Despite his coaching credentials and understanding of the club, Beale remains 22 games into a senior management career. Is this the best-qualified appointment for the club, sentiment aside? The best option available on the market?

Will stepping backwards really offer the most likely chance of success going forwards, particularly given the evident need for this playing squad to be rebuilt rather than refreshed?

It’s no secret that under Steven Gerrard, Beale’s responsibility and influence surpassed the normal prerequisite of a support staff member. It was always understood he took lead on the training pitch and according to Aston Villa No.1 Emi Martinez, Beale’s influence extended beyond the grass.

“It’s the first time in 15 years [of me being in football] that the assistant coach does all the talking,” he told Ben Foster.

“He knows so much about football it’s incredible. He does all the training sessions, he takes all the important meetings as well as Stevie talking. Normally the manager does the talking and the assistant helps, but with Michael we feel him and Stevie are both managers. It’s not just about Stevie, it’s about his [management] team.”

Beale is not alien to responsibility, instead he left a Premier League assistant manager job this summer in search of it. Having been tasked with moulding a team’s tactical identity, inputting into decisions on a matchday and taking charge of important meetings under Gerrard.

Being number one is different. There’s nobody further up the food chain able to take the flak and of course, the Rangers job is incomparable to the Queens Park Rangers job.

Without Gerrard, there will be no shield for Beale. He'll stand solely responsible for every decision; the man to attract praise as well as the perceived route of problems.

Nonetheless, much of what Beale will be tasked with day to day, in terms of training, tactics and people management, is not new. He’s fulfilled these roles long before taking over at QPR, even if the isolation of responsibility is a road less travelled.

“I had a big influence on Steven [Gerrard] and Gary’s [McAllister] ideas when we worked together, but now this is a Michael Beale team and it’s important that you see slight differences in that,” he said speaking this summer after taking over at Loftus Road.

The incumbent boss said he 'loved' the intensity of football in Glasgow. Beale does not lack personality, he's not a backroom staff member whose only strength comes in tactical forms and was a hugely popular figure amongst the playing staff at Ibrox. Understanding the vitality of building relationships to build a team.

"I think I'm really creative in the way I work in terms of session planning and all that, but that's not it," he told the Gold Dust podcast.

"The bit that happens on the grass is going to happen at 11 o'clock regardless. I think it's the way you make people feel about their relationship with the ball and the game and where they're going. I want to be on that journey [with players]."

It's reminiscent of something Bayern Munich manager, Julian Nagelsmann, once said: "Thirty per cent of coaching is tactics, 70 per cent social competence."

Beale appears to understand that combination. You can have the best tactical ideas in the world but they'll be useless if you're unable to connect with players. 

Speaking in the summer, the former Liverpool youth team coach stated he felt 'overcooked' and 'overready' as an assistant.

“If I wasn’t working with someone who had the stature of Steven Gerrard and enjoyed the relationship I had with him, I would’ve been a manager probably before coming to Rangers," he said. 

"I took the choice to work with Steven and while I was at Rangers had five or six opportunities to move on, one or two in Scotland, back home and around Europe. I always rebuffed them because I was part of the project and plan at Rangers. I didn’t think it was finished."

The Athletic reported earlier this year that while the majority of the Villa squad loved working under Beale, some felt he was 'too assertive' to be an assistant. This is not a coach who has struggled to find his own voice or hides from ownership. By his own admission, Beale has wanted to go out on his own for some time.

A strand of experience that does fall in the Englishman’s favour is exposure to Scottish football. He’s learnt the lessons of facing continual low blocks and coached a title-winning team. That should work in his favour, especially short-term unless the sometimes soft underbelly that at times reared its head under the Gerrard regime resurfaces. Notably in cup competitions.

Some will argue that there is a danger of romanticising ‘Bealeball’; the backbone of an invincible league season but not without shortcomings. Particularly at the start of last season, things became a little too predictable. Malmo were able to perfectly execute their game plan in the Champions League qualifiers because they knew how Rangers would play and targeted defensive deficiencies as a result.

By Gerrard’s own admission last summer, managers started to get a little too comfortable facing the tactical template built over three seasons and variation was required. Opponents started to flood the centre and invite crosses with concerning repetition. simply allowing the ball to shuffle wide and defending subsequent crosses. 

Speaking on BT Sport’s Currie Club podcast, Beale said Rangers were “subtly evolving” before the management team’s departure for Aston Villa and reaffirmed his belief the league title would’ve remained at Ibrox if not for change last year.

Will he be more evidently flexible out on his own? Willing to chop, change and alternate while still possessing a clear identity in possession? Comments made recently at a QPR press conference appear to suggest so.

“I’d like to spend the World Cup period looking at one or two formations that we may need to use,” he said on the topic of variation.

“I’ve been tempted at times to change it but because we haven’t had much time on the training pitch and I really want the players to have clarity when they go out there. You’ve seen us rotate in games through necessity rather than it being ideal. That gives me time to work on the training pitch to keep us unpredictable in the second half of the season."

There are the ingredients for a second round of Bealeball to work. The 42-year-old knows the club, knows the league and has known success. Despite his youthful management career, the responsibility he assumes is not new, if a little more glaring and obvious.

It’s impossible to escape the risk factor or evade the topic of wider issues that have led to a mid-season managerial change. Claims of a safe appointment, which lacks a wide scope and holds onto past success have foundations. If he was not deemed ready last year, why is he ready now? Can he be successful without Gerrard north of the border?

However these topics materialise, Beale's main obstacle at Ibrox will not be experience.  His success depends on innovation, variation and proving he's the future having come from that past.

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