The knives are being sharpened for Brother Pedro with the Daily Record putting the boot in spectacularly this morning.
Paul Murray’s favourite newspaper didn’t beat around the bush as they claimed that Pedro has made the team worse than the one that forced the resignation of Mark Warburton.
Caixinha has still to make his first move into the transfer market but it seems that two tame defeats to Celtic have got the clock ticking towards the departure of the Portuguese manager.
Chief football writer Keith Jackson states: “But the worry where Caixinha is concerned is that, eight games into his tenure, his Rangers team appears to be in an even more abject state now than it was when the last manager was removed from the premises in a storm of bad blood and rancour.
“In other words, in a short space of time, Caixinha has taken a spluttering Rangers side and made it even worse.
“Yes, yesterday’s win will buy him some much needed breathing space. At times over the last couple of weeks, as neighbours Celtic swarmed all over him, he may have felt as if he was in danger of suffocating in his new home town.
“So he’ll have relished this dramatic late turn of events in Maryhill but when he’s back in the office at 5.30 this morning, he’ll have to properly examine the poverty of this latest performance and it won’t make for pretty viewing through blurry eyes.
“At this point, credit where it is due. Caixinha identified at half time yesterday that his tactical plan was failing his team once again.
“He instructed his players to adopt a far more direct approach which resulted in a bombardment of long balls raining down on the Thistle defence.”
Ominously he added: “Yesterday’s victory was his fourth in eight games in charge. This 50 per cent win rate is 10 per cent down on Warburton’s figures for the season of 19 wins from 32 games before he was bundled out the backdoor by chairman Dave King back in January.
“It’s also an exact match to those of caretaker Graeme Murty who won three of six games while he was minding the shop, while also managing a point at Celtic Park.
“But the biggest change of all since Caixinha took control has not been about the stats. It’s been about the style with which his team now operates. Or, more to the point, the complete and utter lack of it.
“When King pounced on the opportunity to send him packing, it stands to reason that the chairman acted in the belief that another man could squeeze more from this group of players before the end of the current campaign but so far Caixinha has delivered less.
“There is certainly no clear plan to the way this team now functions. On the contrary, some of these players appear to be operating amidst a cloud of confusion.”
Switching the spotlight to South Africa Jackson adds: “But is it realistic to expect an entirely new starting eleven to be in place before the first ball of the next campaign is kicked in earnest? Will King even have found his wallet by then?
“And, even if he does fish it out from the back of his South African sofa, do Rangers want to trust the judgement of a manager in the transfer market, after publicly lacerating Warburton for his failings in recruitment? Wasn’t that the whole point of headhunting a Director of Football? Oh, and while we’re at it, how’s that one coming along?
“No, it seems a great deal more likely that Caixinha will be looking at many of these same faces when he walks back into the dressing room for his first game of the next campaign. Like it or not.
“For that reason, he should think carefully before conducting a series of one-to-ones with these players, a process which he indicated could begin as early as today and which could very quickly develop into a full scale cull.
“He might not rate them but he could yet be stuck with more than a few of them. And if that is indeed the case, then he’s going to have to get a great deal more out of them than he has managed up until now.”
Two back to back humiliations from Celtic were never included in the script for The Journey- especially after the euphoria of Murty taking a point from the March derby meeting.
Caixinha’s failings are similar to the shortcomings of the squad. Nobody at any level within the club knows what is required to win at the top level.
Managing Director Stewart Robertson hasn’t been seen or heard since the defeats from Celtic cast an enormous shadow over season ticket sales.
As he starts to shift players on and find King’s cheque book Brother Pedro will soon discover why the great historical club that he likes to talk about turned to the fifth best coach in Qatar to try to break Celtic’s domination.