Rangers manager Michael Beale has spoken an awful lot about Celtic since succeeding Giovanni van Bronckhorst but after experiencing his first defeat as Ibrox boss today in the Scottish League Cup final was left questioning his own players.
Kyogo Furuhashi scored a close-range double to put Rangers two behind, before an Alfredo Morelos goal threatened to bring them back into it.
However, Celtic managed to defend Joe Hart’s goal well and saw out the game, even having multiple opportunities to add to the 2-1 scoreline by the full-time whistle.
Michael Beale left looking inward for a change
For Beale, his team’s second-half efforts were too little, too late, as he questioned why they didn’t turn up with more energy in the opening stages of the game.
He told BBC Radio Scotland [17:52]: “We didn’t start the game well. I think that’s clear to see. It took us too long to find rhythm in our football and to get up to the speed of the game. Fair play to Celtic, I thought they started well. I thought we were going to get away with getting to half-time, we didn’t and we conceded just before, which was disappointing.
“We came out in the second half much better and improved in terms of our energy. Not always our quality, but certainly our energy.
“I’m just wondering where that is at the start of the game? If we have it in us, where is that when we start the game? That’s something for us to go back and look at.”
“I’ve said to our players there that it’s a harsh game, football. You can’t turn up 30 minutes into a cup final against your biggest rivals. I thought it was an end-to-end intriguing game, but we didn’t have enough.”
Celtic have dominated the Scottish football landscape for more than a decade and plenty of these Rangers players have had multiple opportunities to win trophies in recent years, only to lose out.
Their supporters must be questioning whether or not this squad needs a clear out in the summer, given they just don’t seem to have the mentality to get the better of the Bhoys the vast majority of the time. The excuses are running out for a group of serial losers.
Meanwhile, the Bhoys go from strength to strength under Ange Postecoglou and are on course to add to the trophy haul before the end of the campaign. Lucky for some, eh?
In other news, Ange Postecoglou’s brilliant reaction after Celtic take care of Rangers at Hampden.
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