The hipsters will no doubt have their own theories on Rangers’ latest away day disaster.
Detailed explanations on why the xG in Paisley wasn’t high enough. Suggestions of system tweaks Philippe Clement should have deployed to prevent the unthinkable happening yet again. But forget tactics or fancy formations. This latest Rangers capitulation against St Mirren on Boxing Day boiled down to just two things, both of which have reared their heads far too often over the last few years.
Attitude and mentality. Safe to say, these players will deny it and say they adopted the same approach to this game as they’d done for the previous seven. But they’re kidding no-one, not least themselves.
After a decent – no more than that – run of form, Clement’s team arrived at the SMISA Stadium thinking they just had to turn up to win. After all, they’d beaten Nice and drawn with Spurs in Europe. Got league wins at St Johnstone, Kilmarnock, Ross County and Dundee. And they performed well in a League Cup Final they ultimately lost to their oldest rivals.
So for a few weeks, they felt like they’d actually done something after an abysmal start to the campaign. But whatever you think of Scottish football, you can’t just saunter into an away ground thinking you’re the bee’s knees and expect to collect the points. Especially when you’re a Rangers team who have achieved next to nothing so far. But that’s what happened on Thursday.
Clement said it himself. The energy and application in the first 45 minutes was unacceptable, verging on arrogant. But we shouldn’t have been surprised. Because it’s a disease that has riddled Rangers for years now. They simply find it impossible to sustain a level of hunger, relentlessness and will to work for any length of time.
And, like it or not, that comes from the players themselves. Of course, a manager can try to instil a winning mentality in his squad. But when you have a team who just don’t have it in their DNA, sometimes you’re fighting a losing battle.
Now, this has been labelled against Gers sides since Mark Warburton was in charge almost a decade ago.
Steven Gerrard managed to change it by winning a title in 2021 but we all know what happened after that. Punters might say: ‘But this is a completely different set of players’. That’s true. But this is an affliction that’s been passed down through different squads now.
This is a club that has become comfortable playing second fiddle. They’ve got used to being on the periphery when it comes to challenging for honours.
And until there’s some proper leadership and a shift from that mentality – on and off the pitch – it won’t change. Captain James Tavernier looked a forlorn figure in Paisley as any potential Premiership title race went up in smoke. How many times have we said that? But this illness has even seeped into experienced players who are relatively new on the scene.
Jack Butland, who is on the cusp of experiencing a second failed campaign on the spin, is an excellent keeper. But he lost his head against Saints. His crazy decision to needlessly charge out of his goal, cement Greg Kiltie and give away a penalty was mind-blowing. And it cost Clement, big time.
Again, as we’ve seen before, Rangers reacted in the second half after Clement put a rocket up their backsides. They decided to actually turn up for 20 minutes and – playing with an urgency and intensity that should be standard for a club this size – murdered St Mirren for that period.
But typically, they equalised and started to believe in their own heads they were top dogs again. They dropped the pace, got comfortable at 1-1 – and were hit with a sucker-punch at the end. Butland’s error, an awful piece of goalkeeping, did his manager no favours.
Where Clement didn’t help himself was with his team selection. Nico Raskin has been his best player for weeks now.
He’s been controlling games and dictating Rangers’ tempo. So why, when you’re crying out for consistency, would you drop him for a tricky, vital away game?
It was a staggering call. Clement said he didn’t want to risk a yellow card for Raskin – who he was forced to throw on anyway – as he’d be suspended for the Old Firm derby on January 2. But do managers not constantly tell the media and fans that they only look at the game in front of them?
If you look too far ahead you’ll fall flat on your face, they say. That was certainly the case for Clement in midweek. They’re now 12 points behind Celtic going into Sunday’s fixtures, with the Old Firm derby at Ibrox in five days’ time.
Defensive injuries are killing Clement and you can sympathise with him. The loss of John Souttar and Neraysho Kasanwirjo have been body blows to the manager. And there are obvious doubts about Leon Balogun’s fitness ahead of today’s trip to Motherwell and the Old Firm.
That might leave Clement with a central defensive pairing of Dujon Sterling and Robin Propper when Brendan Rodgers’ men arrive in Govan.
Which should be a major worry for Rangers, especially given Propper’s start to life in Glasgow. He’s another who just doesn’t look like he’s got what it takes to make the club winners again. We know about the poor recruitment that has curtailed Gers in recent years.
And you wonder about the acquisition of the Dutch defender. Apparently, he was signed on the recommendation of Clement’s assistant Andries Ulderink in the summer. He’d watched him in Holland and knew about the contract loophole that allowed Rangers to get him for £1.5million. That was supposed to be a bargain but we’ve yet to see evidence of that.
The last three left-sided centre-halves they’ve brought in – Jack Simpson, Ben Davies and now Propper – haven’t been up to the job. That simply can’t continue. Propper has spoken openly about how tough it’s been adapting to the physical nature of Scottish football.
Did Rangers not know that might be an issue for him before taking him from FC Twente? And at 31, was the player himself not aware of what he was coming into?
Attitude and mentality. Arguably, the two biggest issues for Rangers since that title triumph three years ago. And ones which don’t look like being eradicated any time soon.