It remains to be seen whether Michael Beale is a champion manager, but there is no doubt that the Rangers boss is a champion talker. Eloquent and interesting. Even Beale, however, must have had enough of the conversation by now. The time for yapping is over. He will know that if his side lose to Celtic on Monday, the league is as good as over.
Most of the heat is on Rangers – and Beale knows it. Perhaps that’s why he spent an inordinate amount of time love-bombing Celtic’s form under Ange Postecoglou during his press conference on Friday. Talk about the opponent, make yourself the underdog. It’s not exactly new-age mind games, but he has to try something.
Trailing by nine points and by a huge goal difference that makes it a 10-point gap, there is no safety net for Beale’s side. Lose and it’s over. Draw and, well, they’re probably still done. A nine-point gap is a chasm when you have doubts about your own team’s position, like Beale, and when the team you’re trying to chase has won 18 of their 19 league games.
To put that into context, Brendan Rodgers’ side from 2016-17 won 18 of their first 19 league games. Martin O’Neill’s team had done the same thing 13 years earlier. No other Celtic manager has gone so far in a league season with the same record as these three, including Jock Stein and his band of immortals who won every trophy they played for in 1966- 67. They were the Bhoys with the Midas touch. Bertie Auld would have ridden the Derby winner that year had he put his mind to it.
In his time at Celtic, Postecoglou’s league wins ran the gamut from 1-0 almost to 9-0, with an 8-0 the only absentee in the streak. The slackers.
It’s not routs that have destroyed Rangers’ lead this season, however. These are the others, the ones where it looked like Celtic were about to drop points and offer hope to the hunter across town, the ones where they only worked to strike late and deliver another victoire.
Two goals in the final six minutes to beat Ross County 3-1; a 90th-minute winner against St Johnstone; two goals in added time to beat Dundee United 4-2; an 87th-minute winner to defeat Aberdeen.
What is infuriating for the people at Rangers is that ever since a Filip Helander goal won Old Firm’s opener against Postecoglou’s Celtic, they have been vastly outplayed in the league. Livingston have a better record against the Postecoglou side than Rangers while the Aussie was in town (they each took four points from Celtic in five games, but Livi’s goal difference of -5 outweighs – 7 of the Rangers).
Last season relegated Dundee scored more league goals in three games against Celtic than Rangers managed in five. Lawrence Shankland netted a 20-minute hat-trick when Celtic visited Tynecastle in October to equal the total number of goals scored by Rangers against the champions in the last seven-and-a-half hours of Premiership football.
Rangers have been hampered by too many injuries this season. It’s undeniable. Helander was a first-choice international centre-half, but he didn’t kick a ball in the league. Just over a year ago, as a Hearts player, John Souttar played and scored in a World Cup win over Denmark, but Souttar only played one game for his new club. Ianis Hagi is a decent player but injury has also claimed him. Kemar Roofe scored 10 league goals last season and 14 the previous season but only appeared twice. Tom Lawrence, who looked good in his early games, only played five times in the league.
Rangers need some or all of these guys, but they also need new blood, a Postecoglou-style overhaul. Therein lies a problem. They don’t have the money for it and they don’t have enough salable assets to self-fund it. Celtic, meanwhile, have found a savvy manager of opportunities in new markets. Recruitment from Postecoglou was great, but the biggest deal made at the club was the deal that brought him to Scotland in the first place.
This Rangers side, especially in a central midfield that is pedestrian, needs more creativity, presence and pace to make meaningful progress. Remember how Celtic’s tempo proved way too much for them earlier in the season. Six of the Rangers who beat Motherwell last week were aged 28 and over. Four of them were in their thirties. Allan McGregor will be 41 at the end of January.
Man for man, you’d pick Celtic all day Monday, but within Rangers there must be a sense that there’s no tomorrow in the league if they lose. This desperation can give a team an edge, an unmanageable rage for victory.
Home advantage is another factor, of course. The games at Ibrox were close. The poundings all happened at Celtic Park, the 3-0 and 4-0 which showed the Postecoglou players at their effervescent best. If they match that kind of energy, movement and class, they will win. They are just a better side. However, it would be unwise to ignore the Ibrox factor. That and the aggression Rangers will surely have their backs firmly against the wall.
The aggregate score between Postecoglou Celtic and Rangers is 10-3. Nine of Celtic’s goals came in the first half, three in the first eight minutes. Beale’s players have been warned. They know what’s coming. But knowing it and stopping it are two different things. Whatever the weather, there will be thunder at Ibrox. This is the only absolute certainty.
