“If you can be not successful and get massive jobs, there has got to be something odd, hasn’t there?” Dyche told Gary Neville’s Stick to Football. “If I’m an owner and I ask someone ‘What is your philosophy’, I’m thinking please say ‘To win’. But now they’re saying ‘We’re going to fan it around the back, pass it here, pass it there’. If I’m an owner I’m going ‘You’re not getting the job’. You’ve lost sight before you even start.”
This, in essence, is the heart of modern football’s dichotomy. What do you believe? Because yes - every manager wants to win. Every owner wants to celebrate on Saturday nights. The real question is how they intend to get there.
That contrast between Kompany and Dyche - between a process-oriented, ball-dominant coach and a results-driven, pragmatist manager - mirrors a wider cultural shift in football. One where hiring decisions are increasingly based on a manager’s work on the training ground, not the medals in their cabinet.
Which leads us to Russell Martin’s appointment as Rangers head coach, a club looking to reset after a lack of identity and stagnating style. It marks a stark departure from the process that brought Philippe Clement to Ibrox just 20 months ago.
Martin was unveiled at Ibrox on Thursday (Image: Steve Welsh/PA Wire)
As discussed on the Rangers Review, elite clubs are now appointing younger, more progressive coaches who articulate and demonstrate how they want to win, rather than simply asserting a desire to do so. More and more clubs are entrusting the process to football executives and not club owners because, believe it or not, the latter quite often lack the nuance and expertise to adequately scrutinise coaches who know so much more about the game.
Arteta to Arsenal, Kompany to Bayern, Maresca to Chelsea. These moves underscore a clear trend: potential is valued over pedigree. Inter Milan, despite reaching a Champions League final and collecting six trophies under Simone Inzaghi, look set to replace him with academy coach Christian Chivu. Why? Because they believe a modern, communicative, ex-pro voice gives them the best chance of sustained success.
Even Brighton appointed 32-year-old Fabian Hürzeler - again, not for what he had won, but for what he could win with a modern approach. Xabi Alonso at Bayer Leverkusen, Arne Slot at Liverpool, Rúben Amorim at Manchester United: none arrived with long elite CVs or experience in top five league, but all brought a clear vision of how to play and an authority to implement it within a modern football club structure.
This represents a philosophical evolution. The aggressive, traditional, all-powerful manager has lost ground to the structured, relatable coach who teaches rather than tells. At clubs with comprehensive footballing structures - one Rangers now hope to have - this shift is not only logical, but necessary.
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When Clement was unveiled, he and those around him emphasised being a winner. When Martin was introduced, he and those around him spoke about why and how he thinks his teams can win. There’s a crucial difference. It’s far more about inputs than outputs.
Martin, like Kompany, believes in having the ball (or ‘fanning around the back') for a reason. Because they believe in their core idea of having the ball, and necessary risks attached with that aim, will provide the best long-term chance of sustained success. Dyche does not because his core football belief is not centred on ball possession and therefore, the risks associated with passing around the back are pointless.
Pep Guardiola, who has been so universally influential especially for ball-dominant teams, once summed up his philosophy in a sentence: “I want to have the ball.” Everything flows from that idea. On and off the ball. Shapes and sizes will change, formations and personnel, but as Martin alluded to in his first press conference everything should come back to “courage and intensity”. Courage to have the ball, intensity to win it back.
Rangers don’t need survival tactics, physical-first football, or a reactive setup. They need a clear identity and a dominant style of play that can consistently outperform domestic rivals. Consider this: last season, Celtic averaged nearly 200 more passes per game than Rangers. They also created more xG (2.15 vs 1.73) and conceded less (0.65 vs 0.87). Why? Because they controlled more games.
Rangers’ biggest issue in the last two years can be summed up simply: “We’re more comfortable in games where we don’t have the majority of the ball.” That’s not sustainable for a club of their resources and ambitions. That’s not effective for a team who have to create the space they play into and will rarely see less of 60 percent possession.
Clement arrived with a strong track record in Belgium, but his success came in a league where possession wasn’t as important. He wasn’t adept at solving the problem Rangers face weekly: how to break down deep, compact teams while controlling games with the ball. That’s what Martin has been hired to address.
Importantly, and sources stress this, Martin hasn’t been appointed for his Premier League experience, win percentage at MK Dons, or even his season at Swansea. He’s been chosen through a more rigorous process, because, like Kompany, he has a clear coaching identity. One that, when aligned with Rangers’ resources and expectations relative to the clubs he has worked with, has real potential to thrive.
As one industry insider told The Rangers Review, the analysis behind Martin’s appointment goes far deeper than “points per game”. Advanced metrics paint a clearer picture: his Southampton side in the Championship scored the most open-play goals, completed the most passes into the final third, had the most touches in the opposition box, and delivered the most passes into Zone 14 - the crucial area just outside the penalty box often used to create high-value chances. These are the ‘top-line’ stats clubs now consult, not banal win percentages.
The ex-Southampton boss spent months at Ibrox as a player (Image: Steve Welsh)
Will low blocks be a problem? Data suggests not. And with few Premiership sides now defending as deeply or rigidly as in previous seasons - only Kilmarnock and St Mirren did so consistently last season, according to the same source - Martin's proactive style could prove highly effective. Even if more teams sit in, that’s half the battle. Controlling the territory, keeping the ball away from your own goal. Low blocks are not an unsolvable kryptonite - they don’t really seem to bother Ange Postecoglou or Brendan Rodgers’ pass-heavy, ball-dominant sides.
In terms of goals conceded, goalkeeper Gavin Bazuna had statistically a worse season than Jack Butland has just endured in terms of errors leading to goals as Southampton reached the Premier League (one in five was directly attributed to him). Martin’s side pressed with an intensity (PPDA) more aggressive than Steven Gerrard’s average and just shy of Postecoglou’s. Scaled to a league where Rangers are comfortably much better resourced than 10/11 opponents, that should only increase.
As Martin himself explained, freedom is afforded inside a structure. Firm fundamentals to work out the parts of the game that require structure (bypassing pressure) and tools to offer the best chance of victory.
And it could work. The logic is sound. Could? Well you never know in football. It’s political and generally while there may no obviously favoured appointment amongst supporters (although you sense Steven Gerrard, only sounded out and not in the final stages of this process, would’ve built more anticipation) Martin knows he will have to win people over. Then again, the popular choice might have earned Michael Beale and Giovanni van Bronckhorst early buy-in but it couldn’t save them in the end. Considering the Frank Lampard debacle last time around, according to many sources nailed-on for the job until public reaction was considered, it is refreshing to see decision-makers who don’t decide with the wind.
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But consider the below sentence from new sporting director Thelwell yesterday morning.
“[Russell’s] teams play dominant football, they control the ball, dictate the tempo and impose themselves physically. They press aggressively and work relentlessly off the ball. These are all characteristics that we believe are required to be successful at home, away, and abroad.”
Forget the name for a second, this is what Rangers need and it’s refreshing that finally a managerial recruitment process is being centred around the most important point - what will your team look like?
Because make no mistake, this is what Martin will live or die by, can he make Rangers into a successful football team.
Finally, the Ibrox club look to be exploring the inputs and not just the outputs. It’s easy to say you want to win but far harder to show a path to immortality at Ibrox.