Players looking lost and a team lacking in identity. Gareth McAuley has watched Rangers go from Europa League finalists to a team devoid of character in the space of a few months and wondered just how his old side have managed to be so drained of courage and confidence.
The Northern Ireland stalwart reckons it got so bad that stars who earlier this year were putting Borussia Dortmund to the sword suddenly look blunt. Like they don't know what they're supposed to be doing. And that is a damning indictment of any manager and his coaching staff. Those players may have looked lost under Gio van Bronckhorst. But McAuley is adamant the Ibrox chiefs have found the perfect solution to rediscovering the identity that made them a force to be reckoned with. In Michael Beale he insists they have the ideal character to sprinkle some magic on a floundering squad.
Even without a January transfer warchest McAuley expects Beale will turn things round - because he knows how to get the likes of Ryan Kent, James Tavernier and Glen Kamara back firing on all cylinders. It all starts on the training ground. And it’s on Auchenhowie’s lush green surfaces that McAuley reckons Beale comes into his own.
