Can Rangers move out of Celtic’s shadow under Michael Beale?

For a team that ended last season winning one cup, and only missing out on penalties in a European final, Rangers have not had an uncomplicated 2022/23 campaign. By mid-December the manager who took them to those finals had been relieved of his duties, little over a year after taking them on. It was considered that Giovanni van Bronckhorst was always going to be too passive, too defensive to ease Celtic out of the groove that Ange Postecoglou has got them into. His replacement, Michael Beale, has had a promising start.

Better than promising, by many metrics. You know a manager is on wobbly ground at one of Glasgow’s big two when they start to lose and draw games against one of the other ten sides in the Premiership, games which both Celtic and Rangers are perpetually odds-on to win with any bookmaker you’ll find on sitesnotongamstop.com. Beale has a 100% record in such games. That’s allowed him to keep pace with Celtic, who have done exactly the same in that time frame. Eventually, though, Old Firm managers can live or die by their records against one another. And in his first two efforts against Postecoglou, Beale has drawn one and lost one.

Is Beale the man to rein in Celtic’s dominance?

Although he stayed in the job another few months, many felt van Bronckhorst’s card was marked when the Gers lost 4-0 at Celtic Park in September. That set something of a bar for Beale. If he could avoid being brushed aside by Celtic when the sides met, he would be the man for the job. In his first bite at the cherry, Rangers recovered from an early Hoops goal to take a 2-1 lead which they held until two minutes from the end, when Jota escaped the home defence and shuttled in a cross which was pinged high into the net by Kyogo. It was the Japanese forward’s first goal against their city rivals. And it took the air out of things just a little.

Postecoglou takes the first silverware, and first blood

The second meeting of Beale and Postecoglou came at the last weekend’s League Cup final. Stung by picking up just two trophies in the last five seasons, this was a chance for Rangers, and particularly their (relatively) new coach to start putting things right. A surprisingly low-energy Rangers fell two goals behind, a brace from Kyogo probably the least Celtic’s control of the game merited up to that point. Beale introduced January signings Todd Cantwell and Nicolas Raskin into the mix and Rangers improved - but many felt it was a timid footballing decision to have left them out of the starting line-up, and Celtic’s stronger 90 minutes saw them take the honours.

April a key month for Beale

It’s ludicrously early to be speculating on the possibility of Michael Beale being asked to clear his desk at Murray Park. It would still be early if the questions were to arise if Rangers’ next trip to Celtic Park - on the 8th April - ended in defeat, even one as timorous as the 4-0 in September. But if Rangers lose that game, questions will begin to be asked as to whether Beale has the nous to disrupt Celtic’s flow, something which is pretty bedded-in as Postecoglou heads towards the end of his second season in the dugout. It’s a big challenge for a man in his first full season as a first-team manager - but if you’re not up to the big challenges, you won’t last long in Glasgow.