Was Caixinha Right In Hitting Out At His Players After Scottish League Cup Debacle?
Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha, in interviews since his League Cup semi-final defeat to Motherwell on Sunday, has stated that his players “embarrassed” both himself and the club.
The Portuguese coach has questioned the mentality of his players and suggested that some of them are not tough enough, after some members of the squad were seen to be “bullied” out of their chance to play Celtic in next month’s final.
Caixinha said: “To make history with this club, the chance to get in the final and play like that? Something is wrong.”
The boss believes that they need to prove it, which is true, but saying publicly that they have embarrassed the club seems rather unfair. He expects his side to prove that they are better than what they were in the League cup, against Kilmarnock on Wednesday, however, this is a completely different occasion and the result will prove nothing, even if it is positive.
Caixinha told his players that they have embarrassed him, the club and their fans. To make amends, he has planned to play the exact same XI against Killie this week. However, injuries to Jak Alnwick and Fabio Cardoso appear to have put paid to that.
To be fair, Caixinha is clearly feeling the pressure and with Dave King making a rare appearance in the crowd at Hampden to watch the game, media speculation about his future must be playing on his mind. I hate to use the word ‘projection’, however, it appears he is shifting his own embarrassment to his playing staff.
I do think that Caixinha needs to remember a couple of things. First of all, at kick-off, Motherwell sat one point and one place behind the Gers in the Scottish Premiership table and boasted of the in-form player in the division in the shape of Louis Moult, who of course went on to score the decisive goals at Hampden.
Also, we’ve seen in Scotland before, the sort of expectation which does nothing to ingratiate the Old Firm to the rest of the country. People such as Neil Lennon at Celtic have been known to decry referees in semi-finals for “denying him a treble” before a second or even first trophy has actually been secured.
Given Rangers’ collar and tie reputation, well deserved too, it would be very unbecoming for a manager of theirs to believe that they should turn up in a semi-final against Motherwell at this stage of their development and roll them over. His players could have been better but they were not embarrassing. They are rather simply, as yet, not quite good enough.