By David Herd

RANGERS V CELTIC PREMIERSHIP SUN 31 AUGUST 12:00

Welcome to the latest edition of the website’s weekly preview feature.

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There is only one topic to cover this week, and it has to be the future of the Head Coach and the utter shambles we are watching unfold on and off the pitch. Quite difficult to know where to start, but I’ll try to split things into just three main areas – tactics, recruitment and leadership.

Firstly, let’s talk tactics. After watching ten games under Russell Martin, the plain truth is that we are watching exactly the shapeless and clueless mess that many predicted on the day he was appointed. The “philosophy” is allegedly one of high pressing, high tempo, high intensity, dominant and relentless football. That’s what the soundbites from Martin and Thelwell described, and what Martin still goes on about at press conferences. It allegedly took seven interviews for the decision makers to be persuaded, and it has taken less than seven games for us all to see with our own eyes that it’s just a blatant lie. In fact, we are seeing a team with no foundation, no organisation, no energy, no spark and no sign of improvement.

I find the tactical approach we are witnessing to be arrogant. We don’t bother with understanding the strengths other teams have. We don’t bother with looking out for the better players opponents possess. We don’t even bother to build a team with the basics such as defensive organisation and making us difficult to play against. We simply have a system and a shape that the Head Coach insists will win, no matter how good the opponents are, and no matter how the players we have are suited to implementing it. We are watching football tactics designed on a clipboard and a laptop, with no account taken of football realities. It is unrealistic nonsense, sold as philosophy. And our support, and apparently many of our players, aren’t stupid enough to believe in it.

The minute we saw Rangers line up with full backs who aimlessly wander infield, two central midfielders who stick close to the touchlines leaving huge spaces through the centre, and two centre backs playing suicidal passes in the wrong areas while holding a high line that is begging to be exploited, we all knew it would never work. It is a system built without a foundation, and the results we are getting week after week just demonstrate it.

Then, to compound the tactical shambles, we look at how our new recruitment team have filled the positions in that system. We all wanted the failures from previous seasons replaced, but somehow Rangers have managed to make us look back at a team who finished 17 points behind and went out the cup to Queens Park as the good old days. There will, undoubtedly, be some gems down south who are in the lower leagues or who aren’t quite at the level to start in the EPL. But seemingly wanting to fill a team with them is a strategy unlikely to succeed. Rangers are not a “project”. Player trading will work best when development players with potential future value are integrated into a team with a core of experience and leadership that they can learn from.

Instead, we have assembled a new-look team filled with younger players with no understanding of a club built on winning, a significant number of them only here on loan to give them experience before going back to their own club. We have said for a while that the captain is ageing and past his best, and should be replaced. We have managed to replace him with a younger player who is smaller, weaker, slower, less skilful, less committed and making Tavernier look like prime Cafu. We wanted a new central defence, after watching us concede a crazy number of goals last year. We have managed to put together a defence that can’t keep Alloa out, and who look incapable of basic marking or dealing with crosses and set pieces. Brugge won 88% of heading duels on Wednesday night, how can a team win the Scottish Premiership when they can’t win a header! We wanted the spine of the team solidified, yet we are watching the same centre forwards who we know aren’t good enough, and watching a Belgian international defensive midfielder replaced by a Championship 30 year-old who looks as unfit as Carlos Pena did. Recruitment has been a disaster, and we need to remember Dan Purdy and Kevin Thelwell when we look for who to blame, not just the Head Coach. To be fair, the wingers brought in might be quite good, although not for long if they get coached by the charlatans there just now.

Finally, Rangers have always needed strong leadership on and off the park. Just four years ago the dressing room had moaners / shouters / bad losers aplenty. One was the manager, and he could look around and see guys like McGregor, Arfield, Davis, Goldson, Jack and Balogun all there are big voices over and above the guy wearing the armband. Every successful Rangers team I’ve ever seen has had multiple captain-type players. This hate-to-lose mentality does not feature in recruitment by statistics, but it is absolutely vital to have that type of player around the place. The transfer window shuts on Monday night, it’s THE biggest priority to put right. Martin talks about making the culture right, it’s a culture of winning that we need.

And leadership is needed off the pitch as well. We now have owners who are not fans of the club with no emotional attachment. They will make decisions for the long-term, and decisions they see as best for Rangers as a business. That’s all absolutely fine, in fact it is what we were crying out for. But what is best for Rangers as a commercial enterprise? The simple answer is one word – winning. If this losing and disorganised Rangers continues, crowds are going to fall, commercial income is going to fall, prize money from home abroad is going to fall, the value of club shares and owner investments is going to fall. I would argue that it is becoming a dereliction of the duty of the board who are responsible to maximise the company value if they allow this horror show to continue. There is only one decision to make, and it has to be made now. The Russell Martin gamble has failed. Bin it before it gets even worse.

Things are so bad, I’ve not even mentioned us having a player who refused to play on Sunday! Any other week, that would have been the big talking point.

PREDICTION TIME

I did predict a draw at Paisley and a defeat in Belgium, just got the scorelines wrong. In the latter case, by a mile. Only one game this weekend, and “must win” seems to understate the importance!

RANGERS 0 CELTIC 2

There are some fans saying they aren’t going on Sunday. Those who are going, are travelling to Ibrox with no expectation, and with a fear of how bad it is going to be. And there are many who will want to use the occasion to let the owners know their feelings, as the Americans will be in the Director’s box. It has all the makings of the most poisonous atmosphere I’ve seen at an Old Firm game.

And the really annoying thing is that Celtic are as bad as they have been since we came back into the top flight. I’d argue that the team under Lennon that we thumped in the 55 season was better than the one that lost in Kazakhstan on Tuesday night. Their fans are in revolt, but we are likely to give them an afternoon of gloating. They are bad, we are beyond abysmal. While I fear a hammering, I am clinging to the hope that just once, Russell Martin decides to play a more solid-looking shape and line-up. If he does that, maybe we can escape with just a standard defeat.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

A personal opinion on the player who has most excelled in the past seven days.

This isn’t getting any easier. I probably should just not award it to anyone, but if it wasn’t for the goalkeeper we would have lost by double figures in Belgium. In amongst the utter carnage in front of him, Jack Butland seems to have rediscovered the form that made him so popular in his first season at Ibrox. The only other possible winner of Best Player in the past week is young Finlay Curtis. He scored a much-needed equaliser at the weekend (which was another shambles but has been overshadowed by what came next). And, he then got thrown on at 5-0 down to play as a right back in a back five in Belgium, and chased lost causes and never let his head go down.

Butland deserves it overall, but it’s a bit like best hairstyle at a Kojak lookalike contest.

As the old saying goes, we deserve better.