The New Saints defender Steve Saunders has delivered a scathing verdict on the Caixinha revolution.
On Monday the Welsh champions visited Murray Park to give Sevco some match practise and emerged with a 1-1 draw from the encounter, Sevco’s goal came from an own goal.
Yesterday St Johnstone beat TNS 3-0.
Goals from Steven MacLean, Liam Craig and Graham Cummins gave Saints a 3-0 win over TNS this afternoon at St Andrews. pic.twitter.com/HqEtyMqhIX
— St. Johnstone FC (@St_Johnstone_FC) June 20, 2017
Since the start of the month the Ibrox PR machine has sending out feel good messages about the conveyor belt of new signings but the reality is somewhat different.
Caixinha has made five signings so far which consists of two players from Portugal, one on loan, Ryan Jack, Bruno Alves and a 20 year old uncapped Columbian called Alfredo Morelos.
Trying to integrate those stars in with the players that Caixinha is looking to get rid of is no simple task with Saunders admitting that the new look Sevco side is no better than average.
“Rangers were no more than okay against us, they had a lot of the ball and kept possession well but they lacked something in the final third,” the former Motherwell defender told the Daily Record.
“We defended really well and it was far more comfortable than I had expected. I was surprised by how little they troubled us and it said everything about how well we played that our keeper only had one save to make. Even the goal they did score was an own-goal which tells its own story.
“It wasn’t as though they were peppering our goal with shots and we managed to ride our luck as we had our own chances to win the game and were a bit unlucky not to get a result.
“It was a display which has been typical of Rangers in recent times, they had plenty of possession but it was in the middle third and it didn’t trouble us.
“It’s going to take the foreign lads a few weeks and a few games to get up to speed. They showed against us that it’ll take them time to get into the way of how it works in Scottish football and adapt to the style and pace of our game.
“I played in Europe last season with New Saints and to be honest I did expect their new signings from abroad to show more than they did.”
Saunders added: “It’s in attack where they need to find a solution and a formation in time for their first competitive game in Europe next week.
“Martyn Waghorn started up front against us and he had Niko Krankjaer in behind him who played for the first 45 minutes. You can tell Niko has real quality and he did okay but is another who is obviously lacking a bit of fitness just now.”
Sevco have lined up a closed doors match against St Johnstone before their first ever Europa League match against Progres Niederkorn.