GIOVANNI van BRONCKHORST expressed his sympathies to Steven Gerrard, the man he succeeded at Rangers, following his sacking from Aston Villa. What chance of him suffering a similar fate?
The Dutchman wouldn’t seem to be on the brink at Ibrox just yet despite the team’s numerous thrashings in the Champions League, a heavy loss to Celtic in the first derby of the season and an unconvincing performance in midweek against Dundee that resulted in Rangers being booed off the field. Should they similarly struggle to find top gear at home against Livingston this afternoon expect to hear similar grumblings of discontent.
Van Bronckhorst isn’t worried about his job security, however. Not because he doesn’t care about the challenge of making Rangers competitive in Europe and contenders for the league title but because, from the day he first became a coach, he has been told that sacking is an occupational hazard that derails even the greatest of managers.
The former Feyenoord boss has yet to experience that fate having left his two previous jobs voluntarily but he knows that call will come one day. In the meantime, rather than fretting about it, he has chosen instead to concentrate on trying to delay that moment for as long as he can.
“You don’t cope with it,” he said about the stress of losing your job. “I did my coaching badges and they said when you are a head coach the one thing for sure is that at least one time in your career you will get sacked.
“Hopefully it won't happen but they prepare you for those situations. As a player I had to perform in high-pressure moments so I’m used to the pressure and it is the same when you are a manager.
“The worst feeling that can happen is the moment you get sacked as then you would feel everything coming out. I don't think you can prepare yourself for that moment as a coach if you have never been sacked before. Hopefully in my career I will never get sacked.
“If the day comes then I have to look in the mirror and have the feeling I did everything I could. But you can’t prepare for it.
“I have been in a bad situation at Feyenoord when we were having bad results and losing. Now it is a bit different because we are still winning, although maybe not in a convincing way over 90 minutes.
“If you hear the crowd booing at the end then it is a signal that something hasn’t gone the proper way. That for us was the last 25 minutes against Dundee when we played really bad but were happily 1-0 up. Those are moments we don't want to have anymore.
“We are winning but still we have the booing in the end. But my players will get stronger in these moments. The Livingston game is a chance for us to win at home, play well and make sure the crowd leaves without booing.”
Rangers haven’t had time to properly assess just what went wrong in the second half against Dundee when they were curiously lacklustre. Van Bronckhorst just hopes that his players will return to the clinical performances of recent wins over St Mirren and Hearts.
“We’ve only had two days to prepare and it’s the third game in seven days,” he added. “But I think the message is clear. For 60 minutes we were playing really well. The only thing is we didn’t score the goals we needed to.
“In the last 25 minutes we didn’t get better. We went from playing good to worse. That’s what we need to improve. We struggled in keeping our structure. That’s the most important thing for me, to have that for 90 minutes on Saturday. At top clubs you have to have the mindset of trying to win every game and you have to put in a performance. Over the last couple of days we have worked on the structure and make sure we don’t drop our standards.”
Rangers’ search for consistency has been hampered by an injury list that seems to grow by the day. Van Bronckhorst was cheered by news that defender Connor Goldson won’t be out for as long as first feared but said he would not hesitate to go shopping in January if the Auchenhowie treatment room hasn’t emptied substantially by then.
“If it stays like this, of course we need to look to do something,” he added. “But it’s only halfway through October so we have two and a half months until the January window opens. I’m hopeful that we’ll have players back at that time including Connor. The news on him was a little bit more positive than we thought.
“We don’t have any injuries from Wednesday apart from Ridvan [Yilmaz] who had a knock on his knee. We’ll assess him to see if he’ll be available for Saturday. But it will be short-term.”
Ibrox is no stranger to VAR having had the benefit of it in European competition in recent seasons but van Bronckhorst was pleased to see it belatedly arrive in the domestic game too.
“I know it was meant to be after the World Cup but I’m glad they pushed out forward. It will help all of us in terms of big decisions in games where the referee can have help. Everyone will benefit from it.”
