Master and Pupil

During the 9IAR period, Rangers were endowed with some truly world class players and one particularly notable individual was Ally McCoist, or ‘Super Ally’. Nowadays the assistant manager at Ibrox, McCoist was one of the greatest strikers in Scottish football history, and many fans, even those of an East End persuasion would actually accept him as probably the greatest Scottish striker of all time.

His goal haul was simply phenomenal, and he ended up the club’s all-time top goal-scorer.

Since his departure from the club in a playing capacity, McCoist’s position has struggled to be filled by an adequate replacement. Marco Negri hit the ground running but somehow fell out of favour with then manager Advocaat. Others have tried gamely such as Billy Dodds who was also in a rich vein of form before Advocaat dropped him as well, but no striker has successfully emulated the scoring prowess of McCoist. Certainly not over anything like the same period.

The latest pretender to the throne is Kris Boyd. Borne of pretty much the same school of striking as the master, Boyd is a raw goal machine and little else. His game is pretty exclusive to scoring goals, and he does not add a lot more besides.

Signed from Kilmarnock for less than £500,000, Boyd’s scoring record is actually very, very impressive. His tally last season was 36 in total between Killie and Rangers, and this season he tops the SPL by three clear goals despite former manager Paul Le Guen’s regular dropping of him. One shudders to think where he would be had he enjoyed a sustained run in the side. It is worth pointing out he has not had a single uninterrupted season with Rangers, signed a year ago as he was, yet his goals speak for themselves.

Furthermore, the fact he is second only to Celtic legend Henrik Larsson as the all-time SPL top-scorer gives some idea as to the potential of Boyd, especially given he is under 24.

When one scrutinises his career thus far, his age, and what he has actually achieved, the potential is genuinely frightening.

This is a player with all the goals of McCoist, with plenty to learn, and plenty scope to improve.

He is even finally starting to do it on the European stage with a fine striker’s goal against Hapoel.

Boyd is a distinctly grumpy looking player; one who never looks happy and whose idea of celebrating a goal is to look as angry as humanly possible, but you cannot argue with his truly outstanding goal tally thus far. He is also criticised for being lazy, for lacking the ability to hold the ball up, for not having much pace, and for failing to track back. Not to mention his less than inspirational dribbling.

But when your striker is finding the back of the net as often as Boyd does, does the fallibility of the rest of his game matter?

The job of a striker is to score goals, and Boyd does this to a tee.

Rangers are lucky to have him.

European Ambition

It might not have been the Champions League, and a mouth-watering match against the likes of Serie A giants AC Milan, but nevertheless the prospect of progression to the last 16 of the Uefa Cup was still a goal worth pursuing, and a more than realistic target given the abject mediocrity of the side standing in Rangers’ way.

Hapoel Tel-Aviv were exposed in Israel by Rangers during the first leg in which the home side looked anything but impressive. Indeed, the visitors controlled the first half only to be suckered by a marvellous free-kick right on the stroke of half time. The second half yielded a Novo goal before the Israelis clinched the match thanks to an Ian Murray error.

The return at Ibrox was mooted as a very real and valid chance of achieving the last 16, and a single goal would be enough to obtain this. However, one goal was not enough; for the Ibrox men, buoyed on by one of the finest atmosphere’s in Govan for many, many matches managed to find the net four times. Indeed, from the very first whistle, the home side went about this game with vigour, purpose, and a quality which had been sadly all-too-often lacking from the domestic campaign.

On the right wing, Burke found himself recreating the form which had thrust him into the limelight during Alex McLeish’s tenure. His runs were productive at the least, and downright bewitching at best, with only crude fouls stopping him in his tracks.

The rest of the side played their part as well, a solid team effort more than rich in abundance. But the Man of the Match award had to go to the frankly mercurial Barry Ferguson. Not only did he manage to find the net twice, but his wizardly and craft in the middle of the park was a level above anything we have seen this season thus far. It is fair to say this performance was bracketed up there with Ferguson’s finest in Europe – Parma, Bayer Leverkusen, Inter etc. The opposition here was not as illustrious, but Ferguson’s display was.

In the end, the match was a comfortable demolition of the Israelis by 4-0 – the visitors barely had a sniff, in truth. However, there was a downside to the night’s proceedings, and quite a significant one at that. Allan McGregor found himself on the receiving end of a straight red card for an off the ball incident in which the charge is that he headbutted an opponent. Cue the touchline histrionics from an outraged Walter Smith and Ally McCoist who were in the dark as to the motives for the red card, before McGregor trudged off for an early bath. One telling fact is the ‘keeper made no protest against the decision, which either condemns his guilt, or shows his thorough professionalism. Without video evidence, of which the only alleged segment in existence is a grainy mobile phone capture which seemingly clarifies very little, there can be no likely defence.

As a result of this sending off, Stefan Klos found himself unexpectedly taking McGregor’s place, and to say he looked like a rabbit in headlights would be rather an understatement. We know the guy’s a consummate professional, but a complete poverty of first team match practise showed, and his rustiness was as stark as the winter sky.

The question this forces is whether he will feature at Easter Road because McGregor is currently banned for the next Uefa Cup tie V the Spaniards Osasuna. So conceivably Klos requires match practise. Surely Rangers cannot just thrust an out-of-action ‘keeper into such an important match?

Back to the grind of the SPL though, and a trip to Edinburgh awaits. Smith’s effect on the domestic level of the side has been pretty significant, and no points have been dropped bar a disappointing draw with Hearts. This must be maintained to secure that vital CL spot for next season. And Hibernian lie in wait – a trip to face John Collins’ men is never easy.

Rangers will have to recall their previous journey there to prevent any notion of complacency.