Four weeks is a long time in football, but it shouldn’t be long enough for us to completely rewrite what we think we’re seeing. Not so long ago, plenty of us were ready to punt half the squad out the door. Now the same players are getting applauded, and Danny Röhl is being credited for lifting standards. Both things can be true, but the swing in judgement is the bit that worries me.

Because here’s the reality: a title race isn’t a title. Not yet. There’s a long stretch ahead, and it’s never a straight line at Ibrox. We’ll have a sticky spell, a couple of flat performances, maybe a daft goal conceded that sets everyone off again. That’s normal over a season. The question is how we react to it.

Same players, different noise

It’s the same group of footballers, but the conversation around them has changed dramatically. That tells you something about confidence and structure, and also something about how quick we are to decide someone “isn’t good enough” one week and then act like they’re reborn the next.

To be fair, supporters are emotional. We live every pass. We carry the frustration from last season, or last month, or ten minutes ago. But when the mood becomes the story, it gets messy. Players feel it. Managers feel it. And if the board starts making decisions based on the loudest bit of the support rather than the bigger picture, you can end up back at square one again.

Backing a rebuild means accepting the rough bits

I’ve always leaned towards giving players time and backing the manager while something is being built. That doesn’t make anyone a “better” Rangers supporter, and it doesn’t mean ignoring the bad points either. It’s just a choice to focus on what’s improving rather than going straight to the nuclear option every time a performance drops.

There’s also a tendency in our support to split into “glass half full” and “glass half empty” camps. Truth is, both sides usually see the same issues, they just react differently. And plenty of proper Rangers supporters can’t get to games for all sorts of reasons, so the idea of labelling who’s “real” and who isn’t is a dead end.

Keep the head when the season turns

If Röhl is getting more out of this squad, then that’s exactly the point: improvement. The aim should be progress that lasts, not a couple of good weeks followed by panic as soon as it gets tight again. If we wobble, can we stay supportive and steady, or do we go back to the usual cycle?

Hope is fine. Belief is earned. Patience is the hard bit, but it might be the one thing Rangers need most if we’re serious about building something that sticks.

Written by Angus1812: 18 January 2026

Tags: match-review tactics