THURSDAY'S BIG STORIES Vindication Ad There are two kinds of managerial decisions: ones you get away with, and ones you don't.
Rangers went off to the Netherlands last night without Alfredo Morelos, the Colombian left behind on the grounds that, according to his manager, he was not physically or mentally ready to play. «As a person, it was a hard decision,» said Gio van Bronckhorst. «As a manager, it was an easy one.» Champions LeagueRangers down PSV to return to European top table — who else joins them?22/08/2022 AT 15:18 Call it a gamble.
Call it a smear campaign. Call it a big bluff from a manager looking to establish his authority. Or, given that Morelos got a red card after 13 minutes at the weekend, call it a perfectly sensible piece of squad management.
What matters is that it worked, and Rangers are through to the Champions League group stage for the first time since 2010. Now, we are but a simple Warm-Up, and we don't quite understand the mechanics of how Morelos' absence led to PSV missing all those chances in the first half, or to the risible piece of faffing around that let Rangers nick the ball for the game's only goal.