Rangers Lacking Edge, Fight And Real Winning Mentality

One fan voices growing frustration at a Rangers side he feels has gone soft, lost its edge and is in constant need of yet another rebuild.

I have been saying it to mates for what feels like forever now: this Rangers team shows nowhere near enough emotion. There is a clear lack of anger, joy and frustration between the players when tackles go in or mistakes are made, and even when one of our own puts in a big challenge there is very little in the way of reaction or togetherness.

Maybe it is just the modern way, a new school of thought about staying calm and being nice to each other, but it jars with what many of us grew up with. When I played, if you made a mistake you got absolutely hammered for it and the first thing you wanted to do was put it right. If your team-mate lost the ball, you would run yourself into the ground to make sure that error did not cost the team.

If a team-mate was wiped out by a heavy challenge, you were straight in letting the opposition know you were not going to stand for it. That edge, that anger and togetherness, seems to be missing from this Rangers side. Too often we look like a group of strangers rather than a team that will go to the wall for each other.

What really grates is the way some of our players hit the deck at the slightest contact, looking for soft fouls from nothing challenges. It is embarrassing. Where is the fight? Where is the desire to get back up, win the ball and dominate your opponent? Rangers sides should be known for intensity and aggression within the rules, not for appealing to referees every time they feel a touch.

Soft mentality and constant rebuilds

Right now it feels like the squad is full of powderpuff players who simply do not show a genuine winning mentality often enough. On top of that, too many lack the quality on the ball to consistently do what is required in big moments. That combination is miles away from what this club should be about.

Supporters are understandably tired of hearing about yet another rebuild. Every time a season goes off track, the answer seems to be to rip it up and start again. I am sick to my back teeth of that cycle. At some point you need to build a core that stays together, demands standards from each other on the park and drags the rest up with them.

For me, the best we can realistically hope for just now is to stay as close as possible in the league and then look to add three, four or five proper players in January who can genuinely lift the level. Even that is a massive ask in the winter window, but without that injection of mentality and quality it is hard to see this group suddenly finding the edge and aggression that has been missing for far too long.

Additional Insight

The frustration around mentality at Rangers is not new. Over recent seasons there has been a repeated feeling among fans that the team can look technically neat in spells but mentally fragile when games become physical or scrappy. In Scottish football, where matches are often decided by battles as much as by skill, that lack of edge stands out even more.

Clubs that dominate domestically usually combine ability with a ruthless streak: players driving standards, demanding more from team-mates and refusing to accept cheap errors. For Rangers, any future recruitment has to be about more than just technical talent. Character, aggression, consistency and the willingness to suffer for results are every bit as important if the team is to move away from the constant rebuild cycle and towards a settled, hardened core worthy of the jersey.

Written by GMW 3 12 2025