The dust may have settled on Rangers’ Champions League horror show against Club Brugge on Tuesday night, but the anger from supporters shows no sign of subsiding any time soon.
Russell Martin’s side absolutely imploded during a wretched first half which saw the Belgians race into a 3-0 lead after only 20 minutes in the play-off tie.
Rangers pulled a goal back through Danilo after the break but, ahead of next week’s second leg, it now looks all but certain they will be eliminated and drop down to the Europa League.
The atmosphere was both toxic and mutinous, with a growing section of the fanbase calling for Martin to be sacked already.
Yet, beyond the performance itself, it was actually Martin’s comments in the post-match media conference which seemed to infuriate supporters more than anything.
Many felt that he was deflecting the blame and refusing to take any responsibility as manager, and a lot of what he said just didn’t hold up to scrutiny.
Here, Daily Mail Sport examines some of those comments from Martin and puts the Rangers boss under the microscope.
Rangers manager Russell Martin looks on concerned from the sidelines at Ibrox
The Ibrox club never recovered after going 3-0 down after just 20 minutes against Brugge
‘I think there’s been a fragility at this club for a long, long time, so it’s not a new thing. Apart from one season, the club have had a lot of pain in the last 14 or 15 years.’
That’s a pretty sweeping generalisation and little more than a convenient excuse. Yeah, absolutely, in terms of their efforts on the *domestic* front, Rangers have had a torrid time of it over the past 15 years or so. The only real highlight has been winning the league title in season 2020-21. But in Europe, it’s been a different story.
Rangers have, by and large, actually been pretty good in Europe. It’s been the main highlight for the club over recent seasons, barring one disastrous campaign in the Champions League in 2022. They have consistently reached the latter stages of the Europa League and a succession of managers — Steven Gerrard, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Philippe Clement and Barry Ferguson — have all found a way of making them competitive in European football.
That first-half capitulation simply doesn’t happen under any of those previous managers. They knew how to set a team up in Europe, how to be pragmatic and competitive, whereas Martin’s side simply fell apart.
Brugge are a good side, but we’re not talking about a prime Barcelona here. They’re not a PSG or a Man City. There was no excuse for the way Rangers simply imploded during those opening 20 minutes.
‘When you’re 2-0 down after seven minutes, tactics don’t come into it because for the next half an hour, I didn’t really see anything we’d worked on. Really nothing. You can’t impact anything from the sidelines at that point. You put a game plan in place to try and win the game, but the decision-making changes because we’re so anxious. It’s not about tactics and not about style of play, that’s about the reaction emotionally to the damage that’s been inflicted and we didn’t respond well enough to it.’
This is the stuff that really made alarm bells ring and caused such anger among the supporters. Martin was essentially shirking responsibility and refusing to accept any blame for the performance. He was adamant it was nothing to do with tactics or style of play. He was putting the focus on the players and on their emotional reaction after losing those early goals.
How can he possibly argue that tactics don’t come into it? The second goal came directly from a set-piece, as Jorne Spileers was left totally unmarked from a corner to side-foot the ball past Jack Butland. If an opposition player is left totally unmarked at a corner, that’s a tactical issue. Whether it’s man marking or zonal, it all forms part of your tactical game plan.
Tactics aren’t just a matter of what formation you play, or whether you look to dominate possession or play on the counter. For Martin to claim that he couldn’t influence things from the touchline was laughable, to the point it actually insulted the intelligence of supporters.
Making changes mid-game, whether to the shape or personnel, in order to help improve the performance? That’s what good managers do. They are able to affect change from the touchline. That is, quite literally, a key part of Martin’s job. He could have tweaked things and tried to shore up the midfield to make sure Rangers weren’t so exposed, but he fundamentally failed to do so.
The Rangers players applaud the fans at full-time but the atmosphere at Ibrox was toxic
‘I’m proud of the players. I think that was as hard as it will ever be for them in the first half.’
Unfortunately for both Rangers and Martin, there’s no telling how bad this might get, no guarantee that Tuesday night was rock bottom. Martin and his players have an Old Firm game in just over a week’s time. If Celtic go to Ibrox and run riot like Brugge did in those opening 20 minutes, the place will be in total meltdown.
The atmosphere was toxic at times against Brugge, with some fans leaving early whilst a scuffle broke out among others in the Bill Struth Main Stand. But as bad as it was, the level of mutiny and vitriol from the stands would increase tenfold if Celtic pitch up at Ibrox and go 3-0 up inside 20 minutes.
Before they even get to Celtic, Rangers face St Mirren in Paisley on Sunday before travelling for the return leg in Brugge. On the basis of what we are seeing, it’s hard to make a case for them beating St Mirren let alone winning away in Belgium.
After the international break, they will then face Hearts and Hibs at Ibrox in successive weekends in the Premiership and Premier Sports Cup. It’s a very, very tough run of games. Buckle your seatbelts, this could still get a whole lot worse.
Romeo Vermant’s opening goal for Brugge was a defensive disaster for Rangers
‘The precursor to change is pain very often. The club’s bounced around with different ideas, different plans, really been hinged on emotion, making decisions just on a quick reaction. So now we have owners and a leadership team that understand where the club’s been and where it’s at and where it needs to go to. But they also understand that’s not going to come without a bit of pain.’
It sounded very much like Martin believes he’s bulletproof. He sounded like a manager who has been given certain assurances from the club’s new American owners. Clearly, he believes he will get time to turn this tanker around, and that no knee-jerk decisions will be made with regards to him being sacked.
But those assurances will only last up to a certain point. Rangers can’t keep spilling points in the league — and they certainly can’t continue to leave themselves so exposed in Europe.
Strip it back and look at it now on a game by game basis. If Rangers lose to St Mirren in Paisley on Sunday, Martin will be getting asked about his job. That’s where we’re at.
Never a popular appointment in the first place, fans simply aren’t buying what he’s selling. The football has been dreadful so far, there’s no good stuff to offset all the many other issues of concern.
Right now, the 3-0 home win over a limited Viktoria Plzen side a couple of weeks ago looks like an anomaly. If this continues, the Americans are going to have a serious decision to make.
It’s not about knee-jerk decisions. It will be about them having the courage to admit they may have made a mistake, and rectifying it at the earliest opportunity.
Danilo grabbed a consolation goal for Rangers in what was a better second-half performance
‘We’ve had some guys who have found the start tough. But tonight they came through brilliantly. Joe Rothwell’s best game, Max’s (Aarons) best game, Jayden (Meghoma) was fantastic. Danilo will be better for scoring. Gassama just grows every game. So there are loads for us to be excited about and positive about moving forward. The tie is not over. It’s still alive. We will go over there as underdogs next week. I’ll enjoy that and I think the players will as well.’
Utter nonsense. This was the definition of a manager moving into the realms of total delusion. Especially in the cases of Rothwell and Aarons, Martin was trying to spin an alternative reality and pull the wool over punter’s eyes.
Plainly, it didn’t work. Aarons has been absolutely abysmal since his loan move from Bournemouth. There was a slight degree of mitigation at the start since he was being played out of position at left-back. But he’s now playing in his natural position at right-back and he still looks hopeless. Any time he has the ball, it goes either sideways or backwards. He has also been really ropey defensively and has been caught in possession far too much.
Aarons was supposed to be an upgrade on James Tavernier, but he looks nowhere near it. Just another over-hyped dud from the English Premier League.
Rothwell has been decent on the ball at times in some of the domestic fixtures, but he lacks the mobility and awareness to play as a holding midfielder in Europe. He looked swamped and out of his depth during the Brugge onslaught in the first half.
As for Martin claiming the tie isn’t over? Yeah, pull the other one. Only 24 hours previously, Martin had been asked about the fact many people viewed Brugge as favourites. ‘I don’t think we’d ever go into any game considering ourselves underdogs, for sure,’ he said.
Funny how quickly things can change in 24 hours. Life comes at you fast.
