“It looks like they have regressed, on this performance.”
That’s how former Rangers striker Billy Dodds assessed Sunday’s meek 1-0 loss at Kilmarnock that leaves the Ibrox side six points behind Celtic and Aberdeen in the Scottish Premiership.
Manager Philippe Clement has been at Rangers for a year, so the obvious question is has progress been made in that time?
The answer is maybe not so straightforward.
When the Belgian replaced Michael Beale at Ibrox, Rangers had 15 points from eight Scottish Premiership matches.
After the defeat at Rugby Park, they are on 16 points from eight this season.
With Aberdeen holding champions Celtic to a 2-2 draw on Saturday, Rangers had the opportunity to narrow the gap.
“The manager shouldn’t even need a pep talk, if the players have the right temperament,” said Dodds on the mental approach.
“Get out there and win the game by whatever means, but they just didn’t turn up.
“With Celtic and Aberdeen doing well, Rangers have just got to hang in. For that to happen the attitude has to be spot on. Today it was miles off.”
Cup win and budgets cuts
Clement lifted the League Cup last December, the club’s first trophy since the 2022 Scottish Cup. Bidding to repeat the trick, Rangers meet Motherwell in the semi-final in early November.
He seldom completes a media conference without several mentions of a “rebuild”.
His predecessor did the same but too many of 2023’s summer recruits proved underwhelming.
The same could be said of the latest batch of new faces so far, although the big difference is in money spent, with Clement operating on a reduced budget.
Experienced duo John Lundstram and Borna Barisic moved on under freedom of contract, while Connor Goldson was sold to help balance the books.
Rangers could not afford to bring back one of the Beale successes and now Abdallah Sima has three goals in two Champions League outings for Club Brest.
“I don’t think there’s any question that Rangers are not as strong as they were last season,” said former Scotland midfielder Michael Stewart on Sportscene. “Look at the leaders, the characters that have left.
“How much of that is down to poor recruitment and how much is down to cost-cutting? I think there’s an element of both.”
What difference does year make?
Rangers have scored just 12 league goals – that’s half Celtic’s tally. They have scored just once in four away games in the top flight.
Connor Barron, 22, Mohamed Diomande, 22, Jefte, 20, Hamza Igamane, 21 and the currently injured Oscar Cortes, 20, have been signed with one eye on the future.
Ross McCausland, 21, unused at Kilmarnock, is another promising young player.
“The one thing lacking in this Rangers team is genuine pace,” observed Dodds. “They’ve got to look at that.”
Stewart added: “The three behind the striker are nice technical players [Tom Lawrence, Vaclav Cerny, Nedim Bajrami] but the games can pass them by.
“At a place like Rugby Park, you need to compete first and foremost.
“The new players need time to get up to speed but the concerning thing is not just ability, it’s a mentality lacking at the moment.”
‘Fans feel Clement is scapegoat’
Early in the second half at Rugby Park, a group of travelling fans unfurled banners which read, ‘the mismanagement of Rangers must stop and stop now’.
There is no permanent chairman at Ibrox, while they are currently without a chief executive and director of football.
“I think the fans feel Clement has been made a scapegoat, he’s a spokesman for the club and it shouldn’t be like that,” said Dodds.
Asked about off-field issues, the manager told BBC Scotland: “I don’t want to go into that because I don’t want excuses about pitches, winds, whatever.
“We need to focus on ourselves, on the players, on the new players coming in, to get them at their best level, focus on the players who were here, to get to their best level, and to play better than we did today.
“In the end, if you win this game, which was possible in the second half, and you scored the goal, you can have a totally different feeling.
“But we didn’t do enough to get that feeling, so we need to learn from that and be stronger.”
Have your say
Rangers fans, what do you make of the situation at your club.