Is It Time For Rangers To Show Pedro Caixinha The Door At Ibrox?

Just when you believe that Pedro Caixinha has turned things around at Rangers, his side go and lose yet another important game.

This time around they couldn’t find away past a physical Motherwell team who managed to score twice in a two nil win at Hampden. That ended Rangers chances of winning the League Cup as the Lanarkshire will instead take on Celtic in the final.

Before the game Caixinha declared:

“We only have two options – to win or win.”

Obviously that message didn’t get through to the players.

Pedro has yet to see his team strike a third victory in a row and it’s that inconsistency that once again raises doubts regarding the Portuguese manager’s position at the Ibrox club.

If you are managing one of the Old Firm sides and you can’t go on a winning run of three games in a row, then you can’t challenge at the top and nor can you expect to win a trophy.

So far this term Rangers have failed to win in games against Celtic, Hibs, Hearts, Partick Thistle and now Motherwell. You also then have to factor in that they were knocked out of the Europa League in their first fixture against Luxembourg minnows Progres Niederkorn. 

Don’t get me wrong, there does seem to be bright spots this term. The Gers have looked good against St Johnstone and Hamilton Accies in recent weeks. But again it is all about consistency and that remains to be the problem.

The same issues within the team continue too.

When a team is physically up for a fight, some of the Gers team go missing. You have to fight fire with fire and you can’t go hiding when you represent Rangers, the fans won’t put up with it!

Fabio Cardoso still gets bullied at the back and Bruno Alves can’t protect him forever. Pedro needs to think about giving the twenty-three year old a break from the frontline.

I understand it’s the continental way to rotate your goalkeepers during the domestic cup competitions but when it’s such an important game and you’ve just won two games convincingly it seems odd to make such a frivolous change.

Carlos Pena’s own inconsistency doesn’t surprise me. He struggled to settle in at a new club in his homeland of Mexico, so I wasn’t expecting him to pull up trees at the start of his Gers career. I believe it should be expected that he’d have a few decent performances and some duffers. That said he needs to get fitter and move more when his teammates have the ball, that’s a minimum requirement at this level.

I’m still struggling to see why Caixinha spent around £1.5m on Mexican striker Eduardo Herrera. Like Pena, Herrera will need time to bed in and get used to the Scottish style. At twenty-nine years of age, will he have much in the way of sell on value?

Why didn’t the Light Blues go out and sign Louis Moult instead? I think the Well striker is the third best forward in Scotland right now, behind Celtic duo Moussa Dembele and Leigh Griffiths. Moult scored the brace today that knocked out Rangers and he’s a prolific hitman in the Scottish Premiership. He has nine goals in fourteen appearances so far this term. He has excellent movement, can head the ball and link up with a fellow striker. He’d have cost less than the money paid out on Herrera.

Colombian frontman Alfredo Morelos clearly has something about him. No player has scored more in the Premiership this season and he has the battling qualities that will endear him with the Ibrox faithful. But in recent weeks he’s missed a partner in crime and he has looked better when Kenny Miller started alongside him.

Talking of Kenny, the veteran forward has been missing in recent weeks and seems to have had a falling out with Pedro. If the team are winning then Miller’s absence is justified but when they lose big games and he’s a proven match winner, that will start to irk the Gers support.

There’s not enough desire, hunger and fight within this Rangers team and the buck has to stop with the current manager. The board supported him this summer by backing him in the transfer market but things aren’t progressing at the speed they’d have wanted.

What could save Caixinha from an immediate dismissal could be the fact that Celtic and Aberdeen aren’t miles away from Rangers in the top flight standings. But against the Hoops last month, you could see that the gap was still too big as the Light Blues struggled to make a meaningful impact in the derby fixture.

The Portuguese gaffer might also be safe as the Gers faithful have yet to turn their back on him. More and more are starting to question him and his ability to turn things completely around at Ibrox. If he can’t find that winning consistency then the majority of the fanbase will demand a change.

I would be very surprised if the Rangers hierarchy weren’t already eyeing up potential replacements. Bringing back a Gers man in Alex McLeish would be tempting as he could come in and steady the ship. Dons boss Derek McInnes will also be considered and St Johnstone’s Tommy Wright could get a mention too.

Consistency was always going to be the key with Pedro Caixinha’s tenure in Glasgow and at the moment he’s not cutting the mustard!

One Response to “Is It Time For Rangers To Show Pedro Caixinha The Door At Ibrox?”

  1. He should stay he will come.good
    You.naver know we will finish top
    believe.in that

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