Let’s be frank about it, this was a dreadful game of football, but it was still nice to come away with all three points and see some youngsters out on the pitch and getting valuable experience.
There’s not a lot you can say here really. Neither team passed the ball well at all and often resorted to just total percentage play and hoofing the ball in any random direction and hoping for the best. It was a poor advert for Championship football.
I really couldn’t understand the logic of some of the decision making by many of our players, because Watford were awful, but we were no better and they actually made the better chances in the match and probably should have scored and maybe even have won the game.
When you play football in such a manner and simply hoof it at will and into areas, you’re always going to leave it to chance. There was no thought in the approach play by either side and it boiled down to who would make a mistake under the constant pressure of having to win that header or second ball that might lead to something more.
But both teams lacked quality and cutting edge, so anything that did or could have materalised was let down by wasteful play, a lack of genuine quality or poor decision making to capitalise.
It was obvious as well when someone would lose possession of the ball. I lost count of the amount of times that I could tell when a player’s pass was not going to get where they intended by the way they shaped their body or just their body language. Mikele Leigertwood in particular was a culprit, giving the ball away or just getting his passing angles all wrong – but having said that, he did make a superb last ditch tackle to deny the Hornets an equaliser.
I’m still a bit puzzled as to why we’re still continuing to play so many players out of position. To me, it makes sense to start with someone like Lee Cook and put him out wide on the left and let him do what he does best – deliver.
But we still have the likes of him on the bench, and then playing central or somewhere else when he’s on and Rowan Vine is still operating on the wings and is still looking a long way from the player he once was.
I feel a bit sorry for Vine. He is trying to do things that he’s not capable of at the moment and attempting to bumble his way past players. Whenever I see players struggling for fitness or form, or from a confidence crisis, I tell them to play it simple. No matter what, you just get the ball under control and lay it off to someone else. Keep possession and use that as a building block. But often in these situations, they go through the motions and through the same cycle repeatedly and that’s what’s happening to him at the moment. Surely all it takes is someone to tell him?
At the moment though, Vine is not doing that at all and continuously losing the ball or giving it away, which is not going to help him or anybody else and will just cause fans to get frustrated and on his back. Sometimes I wonder if anybody sees things this way either, because to me it’s really obvious but I guess that’s why football is so beautiful and with so many different views and opinions.
We’ve also got to solve the problem with the defence, who really have struggled to pass well for the majority of the season. A lot of our basic problems come because of the lack of quality with the pass or the decision making on the ball.
There were signs under Jim Magilton that these problems could be improved with certain types of footballing philosophies, but if that really isn’t going to work, then sadly we do have to find some better alternatives. I hope the coaching team really work on this over pre-season because we need to get it right.
I’m pleased there’s not long to go before the season is over and Neil Warnock and his staff can really sit down and plan what changes are required to take the club and the team forward in the future.
Unfortunately this season has really been one to forget and has turned into one of the campaign’s I’ve least enjoyed in my whole life, but I am genuinely looking forward to what changes Neil Warnock will introduce in the summer.
I expect a whole lot better Rangers next season.
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