Alex McLeish delivered the most scathing criticism of Sevco after watching Celtic’s 2-0 derby day success at Ibrox.
According to some apologists the game was settled by two slips with the home side denied an early penalty while Craig Gordon turned the game when he blocked a header from Alfredo Morelos after Kenny Miller had pushed Mikael Lustig out the way.
McLeish attended the match as a fan and unexpectedly joined in the Radio Scotland post mortem on Monday night.
Since the BBC published details of his £1.7m EBT payment the state broadcaster has been one of the few outlets not to have featured the views of the former Rangers (IL) manager.
Although being overlooked for the manager’s job in favour of Caixinha clearly hurt him it was mainly speaking as a fan that he explained the pain about the growing gulf between the tribute act and the champions.
McLeish told Radio Scotland: “At half time when people were getting out their seats at, I was at the game there was a sense, they were saying ‘well it wasn’t too bad’. But it still wasn’t any where near what we would expect of a Rangers team playing against Celtic.
“The gulf is still absolutely enormous. Rangers contained Celtic in the first half but ran out of steam in the second half. Celtic’s legs got the better of them but also their quality.
“The first goal demoralised Rangers and after that it was just a question of how many. I couldn’t see Rangers getting back in it, save for the Morelos header, I don’t know.”
TACTICS
“Aberdeen came as close as anyone to usurping them last year in the Scottish Cup Final, first half only. After they moved Kenny McLean to the wide area Scott Brown took the reigns again and was supreme.
“I think that Dorrans could benefit from being in a further forward position but that’s just a small thing.
DEJECTION AND DESPAIR
“Punters were going down the stairs at half time saying it wasn’t too bad because everybody had expected Celtic to score in the first five minutes and run up a cricket score.
“There was a little bit of optimism but when the second goal went in I felt that they didn’t have the legs of Celtic, I felt that there was a lack of stamina after that. Celtic seemed to get much more space after that goal.
“When you lose a goal mentality is one thing but when they don’t look fit enough that is another thing.
CAIXINHA V BROWN
“I’m loathe to criticise a fellow manager but it’s not something that I would have done. I don’t think anyone has said it was the right thing to do, I’ve not read anyone saying that it was the right actions.
“I think you have got to keep your powder dry, get your team scoring goals and winning, you can’t fight with the opposition and pretend that you are on the field.
“Is he telling his players that the next time something like that happens to retaliate or to retaliate first. Then you risk losing players and reduce your resources. You can’t misbehave and throw elbows about.
ORGANISATION
“The organisation in the first half was much better than I’d seen in recent weeks. They’d picked up Rogic and were looking after the Armstrong runs as well.
“I said to guys at half time when they were discussing the first goal don’t rule out Rogic. He always gets one chance in that box. He sniffs the space, yes shocking defending but five minutes into the second half and the game is over.
CARLOS PENA
“Pena was deployed in a role where when you don’t have the ball you’ve got to try to get close to Scott Brown and try to stop him from dictating. He didn’t have the legs for that and probably the guy has never played that kind of role in his life.
“He has been recognised as a striker before so I’m not sure if he can play anything like a number ten.