To be a Ranger

Following Rangers defeat to Hearts last Saturday and our subsequent Scottish Cup exit I was angry and disappointed. As a supporter, still on a high from the outstanding result we had achieved in Braga, I felt if I'd just been kicked in the stomach after slowly rising back to my feet. At 9.45 pm on Wednesday I didn't feel like I'd been kicked in the stomach but rather that I had been the subject of a full on attack by a heavyweight boxer. When the referee blew the whistle at full time on Wednesday to confirm a 1-0 loss to bottom of the league Hamilton Academical the pain was real.

In the aftermath of the Tynecastle defeat there had been the usual soundbites from the management team that there needed to be a reaction from the players in the fixture against Hamilton. A home fixture versus the bottom side in the league appeared to be an ideal opportunity for the players to respond positively and put in a performance that would suggest to us, the supporters, that they were hurting, that they were committed to the club and wished to atone for previous performances.

Unfortunately the ninety minutes that followed did little to repair the bond between supporters and players. Rangers first half performance was satisfactory despite not being the all guns blazing reaction we had perhaps expected. We controlled the game and created good chances but once again failed to convert pressure and possession into goals and therefore went in at half time with the score at 0-0. What followed in the second half was nothing short of disgraceful from Rangers.

On fifty-five minutes Hamilton took the lead following a completely avoidable error from Connor Goldson, although James Tavernier is not without criticism in the comedy show of defending we witnessed. Whilst the defending was awful and individual errors once again put the team into a difficult position the teams reaction and subsequent performance was simply unacceptable. From the moment we went one nil down almost every one of our players started to hide and not one single player took the game by the scruff of the neck and dragged the team back into the game. Once again our lack of leaders on the park was clear for everyone to see.

The lack of confidence that seeped into almost every player after conceding the goal again exposed the mental fragility in this squad of players. When the going got tough the first instinct for too many of our players was to accept they could do nothing to change the result and they accepted the fate that awaited them. Their was a collective lack of self belief that as unit they could reverse the result and could positively impact what was happening on the pitch. They simply did not have the mental strength to react positively to the setback. They were unable to use the pressure as a catalyst to improve their own performance and instead accepted that defeat was inevitable. As a supporter that is a bitter pill to swallow.

Yet no matter how horrible things are, still we keep coming back for more. Sunday saw a trip to the Highlands to play Ross County and our third game against a bottom six side in three weeks. Another defeat was unthinkable and it would be unlikely that Steven Gerrard would survive three defeats in three weeks to bottom six sides no matter how much progress has been made in the last 18 months. We may be about to play Bayer Leverkusen in the last 16 of the Europa League but defeat to Ross County would have left the board of Rangers with some serious thinking to do.

Thankfully the Bears managed to secure all three points with a one nil victory giving Gerrard and his coaching staff some much needed breathing space. The performance was far from assured but Rangers ground out the victory, something we perhaps have been unable to do recently. There was once again moments of uncertainty, particularly at the start of the second half when Alan McGregor made two vital saves. One save in particular from Billy McKay may well prove to be a pivotal moment in Steven Gerrard's Rangers career. Had Ross County scored at this point it is my belief that we would have gone on to lose the game and as already stated I do not believe Gerrard would have survived defeat today.

There were some positives to the game today with Joe Aribo once again showing he was prepared to take the game to the opposition. It doesn't always come off for Aribo but he has shown more positivity

in the last couple of of games than many other players. Florian Kamberi impressed from the substitutes bench again and Jordan Jones seemed to offer more in the ten minutes he was given than Brandon Barker has offered all season. There still remains a number of issues for the management team to address as a number of players did not perform to the standards that they are capable of and perhaps none more so than Alfredo Morelos.

Morelos is a shadow of the player who had scored 29 goals in all competitions prior to the Winter break. He has gone from one of the most difficult players for opposition defenders to play against to one of the easiest. His movement is limited, his touch is heavy, and perhaps most worryingly his desire is pretty much non-existent. Morelos has been idolised by the Rangers fans for the last two seasons and is currently in real danger of losing his iconic status with the supporters. All strikers go through difficult periods and barren spells in front of goal but Morelos' current performances are more than this. He seems distracted and uninterested and on current form should not be considered a certain starter for the upcoming fixture against Bayer Leverkusen. There has been a number of off-field issues surrounding Morelos in the past couple of months and I don't doubt that they are impacting on his performances but trying to play through the problems is not working and his inclusion in the side is now having a detrimental effect on the team as a whole.

This has been a difficult week to be a Rangers fan as we again watched our heroes disappoint us. Disappointment is of course part of being a football fan but the nature of our defeat on Wednesday evening made it more difficult to for us as fans to accept. The very least that we expect from the team is desire, fight and commitment and in the second half performance against Hamilton the players on the park lacked all three. Victory against Ross County has allowed the relationship between the team and the supporters to move onto neutral territory but the issue of trust is not resolved as too often this season we as supporters have been let down. We now have three enourmous games coming up, a Europa league double header versus Bayer Leverkusen, and a home match against Celtic, Victory in all three of these games would go a long way in persuading supporters that the managment team and players understand what it is to be a Ranger.

Seven days, two Rangers, one Steven Gerrard

How do you sum up the last seven days as a Rangers fan?  Last Wednesday evening we witnessed one of our best performances of the season as we defeated Braga 1-0 in Portugal and progressed to the last sixteen of the Europa League. On Saturday we made the short trip to Tynecastle and were subjected to perhaps the worst Rangers performance in over two years as we were defeated 1-0 by bottom of the table Hearts and knocked out of the Scottish Cup.

The difference in the two performances defies any kind of logic. In Braga the team was disciplined, committed, created chances and showed a strength of character that had been questioned by many prior to the game. In Edinburgh we saw the complete opposite with the team devoid of any desire, creativity and perhaps most worryingly, any fight. The lineup on Saturday contained only two changes to that which had won in Braga so how could the same group of players perform so differently in these two games?

It's a question which cannot be answered easily but is one that needs addressed urgently. In his Hearts post match interview Steven Gerrard was clearly disappointed and angry with the players and the performance he had just witnessed. Comparisons were made to performances he had watched prior to taking the managers job at Ibrox, perhaps a most damming indictment on how bad the performance was. Yet this was largely Gerrard's team, his players and his tactics. Can he be blameless in this situation?

In the aftermath of Tynecastle there was an enormous amount of discussion about whether Steven Gerrard is the man who should continue to lead Rangers. I will admit that in the immediate aftermath I questioned whether he should continue to be given time to lead us back to glory. No Rangers manager has gone two full seasons years without winning a trophy since William Wilton in 1905. More recently Mark Warburton and Pedro Caxhina were shown the door for failing to get Rangers to compete at the highest levels so should Gerrard follow? 

What we have to remember when trying to answer these questions is that we are living in a unprecedented point in Rangers' history. Only ten years ago our club almost ceased to exist. Five years ago we were still playing Championship football.  The appointment of Steven Gerrard removed a malaise that had set in at the club and put a marker down to our rivals that we were once again ready to compete with them.

Following a period of reflection after the defeat at Tynecastle it is my belief that the club continues to move in the right direction. Whilst we have failed to reach the standards we expect on the domestic front our success in Europe both this season and last provides me with enough evidence to believe that Steven Gerrard will bring us the success we so desperately crave. Reaching the last 16 of the Europa league is a tremendous achievement for our club, particularly when our journey in the tournament this year began in the 1st qualifying round when many teams hadn't even started their pre-season.

It is easy to be blase about how far we have come in Europe in such a short time but our record is exceptional and we have taken some notable scalps in this seasons Europa League including Champions League regulars Porto. The amount of money, rumoured to be circa £20 million, that has been generated from our European run should also be noted. We must build a solid financial base in order for the club to thrive and compete and their is no doubt that this extra income has accelerated this aspect of the business side of the club.

It is on the domestic front that Gerrard has faced the sternest criticism. Exiting the Scottish Cup twice at the quarter final stage and losing a league cup semi final and final, whilst failing to wrestle the league title back from Celtic ultimately does not make for pretty reading.  But things are perhaps more nuanced than they appear. We could, and should have won the League Cup Final earlier this season were it not for an inability to be clinical in front of goal and some questionable officiating. In the league our form prior to the end of the year was outstanding and indeed we looked capable of mounting a title challenge prior to the Winter break.  Ultimately this was derailed as we struggled to find any kind of form and consistency during January and February. A failure to win games against Hearts, Aberdeen and Kilmarnock saw us drop seven points in a short period of time and pass the advantage very firmly to Celtic. However it should not be forgotten, despite how unpalatable it is, that in this same period Celtic have won every single league game they have played thus ensuring they take full advantage of our poor form. Many would argue that this is what championship winning teams do, but it is unusual for a team to be as relentless as Celtic have, during our dip in form. 

What has become clear over the last six weeks is that for some players the Rangers shirt weighs too heavy on them. They will not be the first, nor the last, that have been unable to deal with the expectation of playing for a club such as Rangers brings. Gerrard has perhaps trusted some of his players longer than he should have and given them too many opportunities to prove to him that they are the correct person to do the job. He must now be ruthless in moving on those who are not good enough and those who do not have the character or strength to bring success back to Rangers.

I am not advocating a summer rebuild but is clear that we must add more quality to the depth of our squad. It has been obvious this season that when our better players are out of the team that we struggle. It is no longer good enough to have a strong 1-11 and expect to be able to compete on both the domestic and European stage. We have saleable assets in the squad currently; Morelos, Barasic, Kamara are the three obvious players who were bought at low prices and could be sold to make considerable profits. This money can then be reinvested in the squad to ensure the quality and depth that is required to take us to the next stage in our recovery can be completed.

We cannot pretend that things have gone as we would have hoped and nor should we find it acceptable for our club to have gone so long without a trophy. However as stated this is an unprecedented period in Rangers history and I have seen enough evidence in the last two years to suggest that Steven Gerrard and his team will deliver league title 55.

WDTCR 💙