I’m struggling to find much confidence in this Rangers group right now. You can talk about being more organised, you can point to spells of decent football, but when the big tests come around the same story appears. We get beat. And it’s hard to ignore the pattern.
The tests that tell you the truth
Europe comes along and it feels like a reality check. Celtic hit a rough spell and you think, right, here’s the moment to properly apply pressure. Then our first proper domestic test arrives and we’re the ones that blink. That’s where the frustration sits for me, it’s not one bad result, it’s that the standard doesn’t hold the minute the heat turns up.
And Celtic Park is the same conversation again and again. It’s not just about tactics, it’s mentality too. If you don’t have enough quality, you need steel. If you don’t have steel, you need quality. At the moment it feels like we’re short on both far too often.
Danny Röhl has improved the shape, but the ceiling is low
To be fair, Danny Röhl has done a decent job getting us looking more structured. You can see more order to our positioning, and at times we look like a side with a plan rather than a side hoping something happens. But organisation only takes you so far if the level of player available just isn’t good enough.
That’s the bit some folk don’t want to hear. The manager can tidy the edges, but he can’t magic up pace, composure, decision-making, or that moment of quality in the final third. Those are player traits, and you either have them or you don’t.
Soft in the key areas
Defensively, we look too easy to pull apart, especially out wide. Up front, we don’t look ruthless enough. And when you’re poor in defence, wide areas and attack at the same time, it doesn’t matter how “organised” you are, you’re always living on the edge.
Getting well beaten by Hearts is the kind of result that underlines it. Not because Hearts are poor, they aren’t, but because it shows how far we’ve regressed from what Rangers should be. You’re watching it and thinking: where’s the personality? Where’s the response?
For me, the focus now has to be on finishing the season as strongly as possible and then using the next couple of windows to give ourselves a proper chance next year. The table doesn’t lie, and being behind Motherwell tells its own story.
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