FORMER Rangers star Andy Halliday says his comments around Russell Martin’s tactics were “taken out of context.”
Halliday, a pundit on the Open Goal podcast, gave a detailed analysis of why he thought Rangers struggled to break down Dundee in their 1-1 draw at Ibrox.
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The Motherwell man got the tactics board out to highlight the issues he saw in the formation.
The two-minute clip went viral on social media, but Halliday says he was “livid” as they had been speaking before about why they think Martin is going to get it right.
In the viral clip, Halliday said: “This is Rangers against Dundee. Dundee played a 5-4-1, compact, really narrow, really tight, really deep.
“Rangers were building with a flat back four and Rothwell so straightaway those five are out of the game because they are all in front.
“You’ve got five attacking 11 players so how are you going to create chances and score goals when you’re five v 11?
“If you did 5 v 11 against kids in training you would struggle to score.
“And do you know what they keep doing because there’s nothing else on? They play a straight pass into Dessers and there is ****** nobody in the middle of the pitch.”
Martin responded to the comments at last Friday’s press conference.
He said: “We’re cool. Everybody is entitled to their opinion.
“I like Andy, I regard him as a really good ex teammate and a person and I like him.
“I’m sure at some point we’ll have a coffee in the West End and we’ll sit down and discuss how he wants to coach at some point.
“When you work in the media you have to give an opinion, right?
“So I have absolutely no problem with it at all.
“Although I never said we’d play with inverted full-backs so I have told him that.”
Halliday, an ex-team-mate of Russell Martin’s feels his comments were taken out of context as they had been saying previously how they felt he was going to get it right.
Rangers have struggled so far this season dropping four points in the Premiership and an unconvincing performance in a 4-2 win over Alloa in the Premier Sports Cup.
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He was asked about the reaction to the video on Monday.
Andy Halliday told Clyde 1 Superscoreboard: “I was very shocked to see a certain headline on Thursday morning.
“In all seriousness, I’ve always really enjoyed doing the media side of it and I’ve always said I will be open and honest.
“But I’ll never personally attack individuals, so I was very disappointed to read a headline that was completely taken out of context.
“Thankfully, I had a chat with the Rangers manager and the Motherwell manager and they both understood and all is good.
“I’ve had lots of phone calls and a few certain people are off the Christmas card list.
“Obviously he’s an ex-team-mate of mine which I’ve kept in contact for a while now, when I first saw the headline I made sure I reached out to him to explain the situation.
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“His response was… I’m not sure what I thought it was but certainly what I hoped it was.
“It was something that was taken out of context and he’s taken it very well. “
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