Let’s go back to April 2017. In Rangers terms, it feels like a lifetime ago. Since then, eleven different men have picked a team to wear the famous blue jersey. The manager who did so ahead of a Premiership fixture with Kilmarnock remains the only one to name it the day before.
The press conference set-up in those days was not the all-in affair that it is now, where broadcast media and written journalists sit in the same room at the same time and all use the one interview. On that day, Pedro Caixinha sat in front of the cameras in the media suite to preview the trip to Rugby Park and then made his way along the Auchenhowie corridor to one of the offices that is now used by support staff. Awaiting him were a handful of newspaper men.
Questions about team news are almost permanent fixtures of pre-match sit-downs. Supporters want to know who is in and out and the fortunes of a player can provide plentiful scope for news and feature material. Normally, it is one of the first things asked of a manager, an easy opener to get him talking.
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Rather than taking a straight bat to a harmless ball, Caixinha opted to swing and knock it out of the park. “I can tell you,” he said, before rhyming off a list of names. “This is the first eleven that will start the game tomorrow.”
It was always wise to expect the unexpected with Caixinha. Even for the eccentric Portuguese, publicly naming a team the day before a match was quite something. He insisted he didn’t care if Kilmarnock thought differently about the game and that Lee McCulloch would not be able to do anything with the information that he had chosen to put out in the open.
Speaking just over 24 hours later, Caixinha defended the decision. The move had, somewhat predictably, backfired and Rangers had been held to a goalless draw. Out of the ordinary at the time, it quickly fell down the list of weird and wonderful Caixinha moments before he was sacked a few months later.
Unsurprisingly, every boss since has kept their cards closer to their chests. Some have given more details than others on the availability of their players. The line of ‘seven-10 days’ that Caixinha’s predecessor, Mark Warburton, used became an in-joke with the supporters. At various times over recent years, the injury situation has been no laughing matter and bosses have paid the price after seeing tens of thousands of pounds worth of talent consigned to the treatment rooms each week.
Danny Rohl was on the other side of that scenario this week. On Tuesday, he confirmed that Manny Fernandez and Youssef Chermiti had returned to the squad ahead of the fixture with Motherwell, while Max Aarons dropped out of the group with an unspecified issue. Derek Cornelius and Connor Barron remain longer-term absentees, although the former is closer to a return.
On Friday, he gave nothing away. Nobody was ruled in and nobody was ruled out. It was a change of tact on a day of a change of demeanour.
“Yeah, what I learned the last time was to speak not too early about who is available,” Rohl said when asked, in the first question, for his team news. “Still 48 hours. I can't give you another update today.”
Derek McInnes will have to guess, and the Rangers fans will have to wait until after 4.30PM on Sunday afternoon. To say that the selection is eagerly anticipated is an understatement. There is so much riding on this fixture for so many reasons now.
There was a strong hint from Rohl that he would pick a team to face Motherwell with the visit of Hearts in mind. It was not a case of the German taking his eye off the ball or taking the challenge of Motherwell lightly. Instead, it was an acknowledgement that the players and the approach that he felt would be best for Fir Park would not necessarily be the same as the optimal blueprint for Ibrox.
His line-up on Wednesday night did come as a surprise. Tochi Chukwuani was the only one of the four January recruits to start and Ryan Naderi was the only other new face to feature as Tuur Rommens and Andreas Skov Olsen remained on the bench.
It was a gamble that didn’t pay off. Stephen Welsh’s last-minute equaliser denied Rangers victory, cost them two points and sparked fierce criticism of Rohl. The unfriendly fire was the most intense that Rohl has received in his tenure and the irony was not lost on him, given that he had collected the Manager of the Month award the previous morning.
The themes in the aftermath of the stalemate with the Steelmen were consistent as supporters asserted that Rohl should play his ‘strongest’ team in every game. That sentiment is fine and well, but what does it actually look like? Trying to get a consensus from Rangers fans on any matter is almost impossible and a poll of those in the away end would not have resulted in the same eleven names, in the same shape, all being selected.
Rommens and Skov Olsen were the obvious shouts, but Rohl could point to the need to keep building up their fitness following their moves to Ibrox and the fact that they will be required to face Hearts on Sunday. Should Fernandez have started over Nasser Djiga, who was actually one of the better performers for the visitors on the night? Should Oliver Antman, himself not a consistent operator this term, have started rather than Djeidi Gassama?
If a second striker was to be utilised, should it have been Naderi or Bojan Miovski? In that scenario, which of the three midfielders – all of whom deserved to start on form – would have missed out and would the lack of another body in there have only added to Motherwell’s superiority?
Asked by the Rangers Review post-match if he had any regrets over his selections, Rohl revealed that Naderi had ‘a little bit of problems yesterday after the training’. In his mind, he was not fit to start, so that took the 22-year-old out of the equation.
Those points are not made to excuse Rohl, but they are relevant to provide context. It is easy to say that the ‘best’ eleven should play week after week after week, but it is also not how the game works in the real world.
Dujon Sterling is an example of a likely starter whose minutes must be managed to maintain his availability and it is rare to find a team that does not have a handful of players who are managing a range of knocks, niggles, bumps and bruises.
When you have a squad, you must use it. Such is the fickle nature of being a fan, Rohl would be castigated if players looked tired or sustained injuries as a result of being pushed too hard, too often. A lighter schedule in the coming week offers an opportunity that recent months have not and team selection should be more consistent going forward now.
The judgment calls were wrong, but it was not a case of the German trying to play for a point before a ball had been kicked. The team that Rohl picked was not the popular choice, but it should still have been good enough to win the game. Had Chermiti taken one of his handful of chances or had Rangers defended a ball into their box properly, then the points would have been secured and Rohl would not have been questioned.
As the StatsBomb radar below charts from the game, it was Rangers who had fashioned the more dangerous shooting opportunities come full-time.
“Yeah, I think as a manager you always take the responsibility,” Rohl said. “I made my decision before the game, there was an idea behind it. And then after, the decision-making is influenced by the result. If you play a draw, then you have to ask maybe such critical questions, but this is normal.
“I think I had some reasons, I said this, that was the reason why I can't tell you today about the injuries, or not such things. In 24 hours between my press conference and the game, some things changed, I got some new information, and I have to make new decisions.
“Finally, I cannot risk some players when they are maybe not 100 per cent available. Finally, it's about results. If you take the right result, then you always have more arguments. If you play a draw, then you have to be ready for the other questions.”
Those fine margins – added to the late winners for Hearts and Celtic in their respective fixtures – can have significant consequences and Rangers no longer have top spot in the standings within their grasp this weekend. The moments have gone against Rangers and for their title rivals of late. If the luck changes, Rohl’s fortunes will alter for the better, too.
The meeting with Hearts will see Rohl bring up his century as a manager. If he ever needed reminding that you are only as good as your last one at Ibrox, events of recent days will have reinforced that. The other one is that every game is a must-win game as Rangers boss.
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