Tavernier talks about their players being men, but he’ll be sitting in the stand for the Celtic game.

I’m not sure who’s more disappointed with the news that James Tavernier won’t be playing on Thursday: Celtic fans or the Ibrox supporters. That might depend on whether Leon Balogun makes their team, but let’s be honest—he can’t possibly be 100% match fit. So frankly, I’m not bothered either way.

This is just so typical of the Ibrox club, though, isn’t it?

They rolled Tavernier out in front of the media just the other day, and he delivered his already infamous statement about how the players had to stand up and be men. One newspaper even ran the ludicrous headline “Men Versus Bhoys” on their back page, in an attempt to rally the troops behind this mad idea.

Who knew, when Tavernier was talking about players stepping up, that he himself wouldn’t even make it onto the pitch? He almost certainly knew. So, what he was really saying was that the rest of the team needed to “be men” while he sat in the stands. Typical of that club and the way it’s run.

I have to laugh as well. Yet another major injury issue hits them right in the middle of their ongoing debate about whether or not sports science should dictate team selection.

If the point of sports science is to prevent players getting injured, it’s not doing a great job, is it? It makes you wonder if this is all just much ado about nothing. If they’re letting these guys influence team selection as much as some people claim, you’d expect them at least to have solved their injury crisis. But they haven’t.

On the podcast last night, we discussed how they might line up—not in terms of the players, but in terms of their system and formation.

One of the biggest debates we thought they’d be having internally was what to do with Tavernier. He’s most effective as an attacking weapon, but against Celtic they’ve often used him in a more withdrawn role because he simply cannot be halfway up the pitch when Maeda is marauding around. No need to worry about that now as the problem has been solved for them—there’s no debate anymore. He’s out.

The natural replacement would be to move Sterling to right-back, but that creates a massive problem of its own. They’ve got no fit central defenders except for the hilariously unreliable Robin Propper. So, what do they do? That’s why they’re talking about rushing Balogun back into the side early, even though he can’t possibly be fit.

Him and Propper. Against Kyogo, Maeda and Kuhn.

I am salivating just thinking about it.

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Clement is now in the worst possible position for any manager—or any leader—to be in. He’s in purely reactive mode.

He’s not leading his club in a situation where he’s in control anymore. Instead of planning how to deal with us, he’s scrambling to patch up his own side. Any initiative he might have had is now completely gone.

Perfect timing, huh?

The feeling of crisis over there has deepened. And because this is yet another injury issue, it raises serious questions about the manager and their setup. Clearly, something isn’t working in the way they’re training their players.

Look at our squad this season: there’s been a noticeable lack of long-term injury problems. That shows we’re doing something right. Over on their forums, there’s been a lot of chatter about how replacing Clement will fix everything and put them back on an even keel. But their problems run far deeper than the guy in the dugout.

That said, one problem at a time.

Their manager gave yet another rambling, incoherent media interview today, which has driven their fans absolutely nuts. Once again, he said he’s ignoring the points gap and focusing on the positives from their last two games. You know, the ones they dropped points in, rendering Thursday virtually irrelevant. While I’m not convinced he’s their biggest problem, there’s no denying he’s still a huge one.

And come Thursday evening, we might just help them solve it.