The uncomfortable truth is simple: Rangers don’t win the league unless we learn how to get the better of Hearts and Celtic. That’s been the sticking point for a good chunk of the season, and it’s why so many supporters feel we’re treading water rather than building momentum.
You can talk about improved patterns, possession, chances, all the rest of it. But titles are won when you can consistently land a punch in the biggest games, or at least avoid taking damage. Right now, too often, it feels like we’re turning up with a plan that looks fine on paper and then getting outworked, out-thought, or both, once the tempo goes up.
Hearts have found the edge Rangers haven’t
Hearts deserve credit. They’ve been well-drilled, aggressive, and hard to play through. More than that, they’ve looked like a side with total belief in what they’re doing. When a team like that gets its shape right and wins second balls, it becomes a nightmare, even if you’d say man for man they aren’t stacked with stars.
The point that really stings for Rangers fans is the sense of value. If a club can get that level of performance without endless churn and “rebuild” language every window, it raises awkward questions about what we’re doing with our own resources. We’ve spent plenty in recent years, yet we still look short of solutions when a team blocks the middle, presses our first pass, and makes the game scrappy.
It’s on Danny Röhl to find a different route
It’s fair to say Danny Röhl is not the first Rangers manager to hit this problem. Plenty have tried to play through Celtic and Hearts, only to find the game gets decided in moments: a turnover, a duel lost, a set-piece not attacked properly, a run not tracked. That’s not just tactics, it’s edge and execution.
But the manager still has to provide a route when Plan A gets strangled. If the middle is blocked, can we go quicker to the wide areas? If we’re being pressed, can we vary the build-up rather than forcing the same pass? If the match becomes physical, can we match it without losing our discipline?
Third place talk should be a warning, not a prediction
The fear of slipping into a scrap for European places should be taken seriously, even if it’s not where Rangers should ever be thinking. It’s not about panic. It’s about urgency. A proper run comes from fixing the fixtures that define your season, not just banking the “routine” wins.
Until Rangers prove we can consistently handle Hearts and go toe-to-toe with Celtic, any title talk is just noise. And that’s the frustration. We’re Rangers. We should be setting the pace, not admiring someone else doing it.
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