Kilmarnock vs Rangers preview: A new dawn

Morning all, Rangers play tonight without Philippe Clement for the first time in 16 months or so. As was revealed on Monday, the new look managerial team of Barry Ferguson, Issame Charai, Billy Dodds, Neil McCann and Allan McGregor will be in charge. If you missed it I posted an article with my thoughts on the appointment.

It makes tonight's game a really difficult one to assess, while Barry Ferguson has managed before, the last time was in 2022. And I think it's not outrageous to say that McCann and Charai will have a large bearing on the tactical set up we see tonight. It should also be borne in mind that they have had one training session with the team, it would be silly to expect a clear identity after one game.

John Walker took one for the team and watched a few of Barry Ferguson's games at Alloa. In that team he played a 433 with a 6 and two number 8s charged with running beyond the forwards. I'd be surprised if we didn't start with a 433 tonight, the management team will want to avoid any sense of similarity with the previous regime and every footballer knows how to play in a 433.

I've had a quick look over Issame Charai's Moroccan u23 AFCON winning side. Throughout the tournament they were very tactically flexible, playing 4141, 4231, 442 and 433 in different games. With that in mind it's hard to guess what kind of tactical identity he will bring to the team, there's potential that we might see his influence more clearly in our European tie. I imagine we will need to look at matching Fenerbahce in different areas of the pitch, and one of the ways to do that is in our set up. Something like a 4141 out of possession that becomes a 433 when we have the ball, simple stuff on paper, but that's exactly what you'd expect from an interim coaching team.

McCann's last appointment was as caretaker manager at Inverness Caledonian Thistle in February 2021. He alternated between a 433 and 4231 during his 16 games in charge. One thing that has always been present in McCann teams is a real desire to keep the ball and move it into dangerous areas, he's a manager with footballing principles and I think it will be his footballing ideas and principles that shine through during this interim spell.

I've consumed all the content Rangers have produced on the new management team. I commented on his opening interview on Twitter (embedded below).

Since then we've had his first press conference and a short video of their first training session. It's clear from both his interview and the press conference that he speaks very well, he's sharpened up his media training since his last spell as a manager, possibly during his time as a club ambassador. For me there was nothing particularly surprising in that conference. The main thing is how quickly he batted away all questions about the long term, reinforcing on more than one occasion that he is only focussed on the next game and at best the next 2 months. He was tight-lipped on how the team will set up, no point showing his hand before his team have played a game. Aside from that there was nothing to report, one of the first questions asking about Tav keeping the captaincy really made me laugh. I love the idea of an interim manager coming in and stripping the captaincy from a very popular player in the squad, great way to endear yourself to the team in the short term.

On the training session, there wasn't much to report. The juicy stuff on shape and style never makes it into these videos (for obvious reasons). Instead we saw the warm-up, a few drills that seemed to be about communication and technical sharpness. Although one drill about movement and interplay was included to show fans that this coaching team want the team to play football instead of going long. The manager said in his opening interview that training will be "hard, but fun for the players" and that was clear to see, even in such a short video.

We've seen many examples of a caretaker manager with a "simple" tactical approach and positive outlook getting lots from players in the short term. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Manchester United and Guus Hiddink at Chelsea spring to mind. Equally, look no further than Frank Lampard's disastrous spell as Chelsea caretaker in 2022/23 for an example of that approach not really landing. He was technically the fourth manager in the dugout for Chelsea that season though, so maybe that squad was truly unmanageable.

It all makes for an interesting watch tonight anyway. Kilmarnock will probably be less cautious in the opening exchanges than the previous game at Rugby park this season. No matter how much positivity has been restored to the camp with the expulsion of Clement, this squad will be vulnerable in early stages of the match. An early goal conceded could really shatter any of that feel-good energy and even make the players regress to the long ball style they've been used to playing. For me Kilmarnock would be silly not to go direct from the first whistle. They will have seen Nsiala look weak for both goals on Sunday, so expect Marley Watkins to be sitting on top of the Frenchman for the duration of the game.

This squad have scars at this stadium, so let's try and start positively, weather the storm from Killie if needed and then look to play our game. That's probably the only way we can approach a game like this anyway.

Hope those travelling to the game stay safe, have a good day everyone. And let's hope this interim team can give us something to cheer.