Time to give Murty the job?

[Gaffer 1,665]

The team is cruising at the moment.  The confidence is flowing through the team and the club, and the players seem to be able to play a style of football we are all enjoying.  So, rather than wait until the end of the season, is it time now to give him the job?  If not, when is the right time?

 

Lets take a look at his report card so far.

 

RESULTS: 8/10

Any manager of Rangers has to get results and Murty now has 12 wins out of 16.  The team has scored 37 and conceded 16.  Since the transfer window, which was his first opportunity to assemble a team of his own, we've won 7 of our 8 games, scoring 27 and only conceding 8 goals.  To win the league or a cup, we need to beat Celtic and although the deserved to win the last old firm game when he was in charge, we could achieve only a draw.  In my opinion, he has to manage a win to show he has what it takes longer term.

 

Coaching: 8/10

Murty has shown that he can improve players like Windass, John, Morelos, Tavernier and Bates.  Morelos aside, I was unconvinced by these players and thought they would be replaced at the earliest opportunity.  I'm now wondering whether these players could be longer term prospects for us because the improvement in all of them has been quite remarkable, especially since he took over.  His experience in developing the youth players appears to be helping us to develop our own youth players too with McCrorie making a breakthrough.  I'd like to see him showing that he can address the bad habits of some of our fringe players though.  Holt in particular is a player I like but he seems to repeat the same bad habits game after game and yet he could be a really important player for us if that could be resolved.  Wilson was the same but we don't have that problem any more.  Can Murty improve these players?  I suppose he needs more time to prove that.

 

Man management: 7/10

This may be an unfair score, given that the dressing room seems to be united at the moment, but it reflects the fact that he has a few injured players out that may otherwise be expecting to start games.  Alves is returning from injury, as is Miller and Wallace.  We still have McCrorie, Jack and Dorrans out.  How will he manage these big players' expectations of game time?  The team is winning at the moment so it's  easier to explain why others are not getting their chance but it will be a test of his skills to manage this when they are all fit.  Having said that, I thought is was a weakness of his his but he's shown that he is robust enough and strong enough to play a team he has confidence in, and keep some big names on the bench.

 

Style of play: 7/10

I questioned Murty's style a few weeks back.  I just couldn't see any sort of system being played and I certainly was not enjoying the football on show.  Then we had the transfer activity and suddenly the football is as good as I've watched in a very long time.  The team can dominate the ball for long periods, but we can also play direct, or hit teams on the counter with the speed of our forwards.  He seems to have developed a flexibility in our approach to games, whilst maintaining some consistency in the standard of fast, one touch passing, which we've used to slice team so apart with apparent ease.  I've now lost count of the times I've watched our goals and thought it was a contender for goal of the season.  The team is exciting to watch and there's a confident swagger to our play which is pleasing to see.  The reason for a score of just 7 in this category is because we have to do this consistently now, especially at Ibrox.  He hasn't done enough yet to build a fortress at Ibrox, but we are getting there.  Equally, we need to demonstrate that we can do it against 'them' too.

 

Media: 6/10

When Murty faced the media at first, he was lacking any confidence or gravitas when responding to questions.  He was always friendly and articulate, but he did not command much respect.  I see him growing into this role now and in the last 2 or 3 press conferences he seems to be more assertive and confident in his position.  He seems to now believe that he is almost worthy of being the Rangers manager.  He has created a decent relationship with the press now, but he has to start seeing himself as the manager of the best team in Scotland.  He needs to walk in to those press conferences and realise that his words can have an influence on the opposition as well as his own players.  He's an intelligent guy and very articulate.  Now he must use that fully to gain any small advantage, especially in games against 'them'.

 

Support team:  9/10

Allen, JJ, CM and a few others were already in place before he became the manager, but the addition of Jimmy as his assistant has been a brilliant appointment and I suspect this has had a big impact on the players.  Also, Murty may not have appointed the others but what he had done is built a strong relationship with them in a short period of time.  He seems like the sort of guy that gets on with everyone, and I'm not sure how other managers would have dealt with the DoF role.  The relationship with Murty and Allen is going to be so important for us to achieve longer term dominance in the game up here so it just has to work.  So far, so good.

 

SUMMARY

Murty is the lead candidate for the role of permanent manager.  He is getting results, and appears to have created a harmony in the club.  He has some work to do to show he is the man to lead a title challenge, but who else would we be willing to take the risk with?  Other managers come with their own ideas, and an uncertainty that I'm not willing to gamble on.  I was uninspired with Murty's appointment, and thought I'd want another manager in asap, but he's done enough in my view to get the job full time.  I suspect the players want him to be confirmed in role, so the question is when to do it?  I think the players would get a boost from such an announcement so maybe it'd be ideally timed just before the game next weekend, or maybe just ahead of a cup final.  What do you think?

[Gonzo79 14,142]

I'd say wait and see where we are at the end of the season before making a decision.

 

If we finish second comfortably and win the Cup then yes.  If not, it'd be worth considering bringing someone else in.

[Uilleam 5,618]

Does jimmy Nic figure in any of the calculations?

[Gaffer 1,665]

18 minutes ago, Uilleam said:

Does jimmy Nic figure in any of the calculations?

Yes, it does and that's why I said that bringing him in was a master stroke.  He's been around enough to know what it means to be at Rangers and I think he's helping Murty tremendously.

Edited March 3, 2018 by Gaffer

[BEARGER 1,829]

Murty is the manager at the moment, he will have his contract renewed at seasons end assuming we are still getting the results. If we hit a bad patch it will be someone else.

[Bluedell 5,408]

10 minutes ago, Gaffer said:

 To win the league or a cup, we need to beat Celtic and although the deserved to win the last old firm game when he was in charge, we could achieve only a draw.  In my opinion, he has to manage a win to show he has what it takes longer term.

 

I'd agree with that.

 

Playing devil's advocate, I'd raise the following points:

 

1. Player purchases - how much input did Murty actually have in that? Were any of the players brought on after Murty identified them or were they all Allen's purchases? I'm not sure that Murty can be given credit for the successful transfer window.

 

2.  Improvement in players - You identify 5 players as being improved. Morelos and Tav have been playing great all season. Not sure that Murty has improved them. Likewise John. Has there been an improvement there? He may have become more match fit, but not sure that there's been a massive improvement otherwise. Windass has been moved into the middle as we have bought a left winger and that's more suited to his game and allowed him to score more goals. When he moves back to the left, is there really an improvement in his play? there has been an improvement in Bates' game but he's in the side in front of better (IMHO) centre halves.

 

3. Media - he's let himself down with his lennon love-in and not criticising the tackle on Jack.

 

4.  Style of play - we've certainly seen a big improvement over the past 4 games.

 

5.  Tactics - he has been shown to be outfoxed by opposition managers on a number of occasions and has shown an unwillingness to make changes when required. I still have major doubts in this respect.

 

Overall, I'm not near wanting him to be appointed on a full time basis. 

[Rousseau 9,782]

We can lose the next couple of games and there will be a post about wanting Murty out now.

 

Too early to say. He'll be judged at the end of the season.

[Bill 13,717]

Murty has the job until the end of the season. There's no advantage making any longer term decision without taking the time available to assess his suitability. 

[DMAA 3,606]

I too think it’s too early to say. I think people were a bit unfair to get on his back when he was thrown in as caretaker and lost to Hamilton and Dundee. He had inherited a team who weren’t producing and he hadn’t had any time to get to know the team and fix what was going wrong. 

 

Since then (December onwards) the signs have been good. He had 4 big tests in December and passed 3 (Hibs away, Celtic away, Aberdeen away). Lost Killie away. He deserved a lot of credit for those results because they were with the same team Caixinha had. 

 

Post transfer window there have really been 3 big tests and 2 have been passed (Aberdeen and Hearts at home). Lost to Hibs. 

 

However aside from those 3 tests there has clearly been a lot right about the side which suggests Hibs was a blip (and let’s be honest they had a huge stroke of luck to get a penalty from nowhere). 

 

Looking forward to seeing how the rest of the season goes now, lots of big tests still to come. 

Edited March 3, 2018 by DMAA

[JFK-1 1,690]

If he were to win next week then against all odds win this league or even run it close it would be difficult for the board not to give him the nod.  If they didn't then a new manager had a a few contrary results as he settled in the screams of sack the manager and the board would be deafening.