Is this the best way forward for Scottish football to go? Walter Smith has used his squad very wisely this season, adding average players like Christian Dailly, who he can trust to do a safe job in a dire league. Smart man.

If there is one thing that Smith is an expert at, it’s Scottish football. It doesn’t take a genius to fathom out that silky, beautiful passing football will get you nothing north of the border.

A 4-5-1 formation at home and away in the majority of matches has brought Smith and Rangers a 13-game winning streak that has all but clinched the Scottish Premier League title after Saturdays Old Firm victory over Celtic. Not pretty to watch. In fact it’s shockingly boring and tedious.

'The point I’m trying to make is that you play to your strengths. Smith does exactly this for Rangers at the moment'


Indeed, the majority of Rangers fans have been unhappy with the style of play up to a certain point. That point being when they realised that Rangers were on the verge of a domestic treble in Smith’s first full season on his return.

The CIS Cup is in the bag after a shaky performance against Dundee United was sealed on penalties. A highly unlikely UEFA Cup run,  using the same tactics, has carried Rangers to the quarter-finals so far. The £9m sale of Alan Hutton to Tottenham and immediate entry into the Champions League should/could give Smith a healthy amount of cash to spend in the transfer market.

It throws up an intriguing question for Smith. Does he stick with what he knows best? Does he change tack and give the Rangers fans what they want - good football? Even Martin O’Neill’s style at Celtic was robust and physical but at least he adopted three up front most weekends.

Whatever happens at Parkhead in the summer, Celtic will spend a fair amount of cash and come back with a stronger challenge than this year’s faltering charade. Should Strachan be applauded for sticking to his principles? Yes and no. It’s great to play an attractive brand of football, knocking the ball about and keeping possession.

There is one major and rather important flaw to such tactics. To do so your end product must be nestling in the back of the net and played by footballers who can actually control and pass a ball. It also helps that when playing such a formation the team has a defence capable of clearing their lines and picking up runners on the break, which is the tactic all teams use against Celtic.

Stephen McManus, Gary Caldwell and Lee Naylor are incapable of this and their distribution is awful. At one point on Saturday the television camera had a great angle of the middle of the park just as Artur Boruc was about to take a free-kick. Rangers’ backline had pushed up to just behind the five men in their midfield. It looked like Sauchiehall Street on a Friday night.

The point I’m trying to make is that you play to your strengths. Smith does exactly this for Rangers at the moment. Gordon Strachan somehow thinks he can play teams off the park with the players at his disposal. He was a front row spectator not so long ago of what Barcelona can do.

Look at the players they have in comparison to Celtic. They can do it 75% of the time. It doesn’t always work for them; look at results in La Liga. Strachan should have played Smith at his own game on Saturday and matched him in midfield, excluding Shunsuke Nakamura for Barry Robson, adding Bobo Balde to the defence and pushing Caldwell into midfield in a holding position with Georgios Samaras the lone striker.

Mathematically it’s not over, but Rangers would have to have an almighty c***-up and I can’t see that happening. What will be interesting is the signings of both clubs in the summer and in particular the kind of side Smith will unveil to the Rangers fans next season after being give a decent amount of cash to spend.

If the season pans out as it looks like it’s going to, what happens at Parkhead is anybody’s guess!