Brilliant abroad - falling apart on the home front
● Domestically, it’s a ‘completely different Rangers’ and it has left Andy Halliday baffled
What now for Steven Gerrard? Where next for Rangers?.
The immediate answer to those questions is a trip to Dingwall this weekend where, by the time they kick off against Ross County at noon on Sunday, the Ibrox side can expect to be a whopping 16 points adrift of Celtic at the top of the Premiership table.
Perhaps Gerrard should try to convince his players that the long and winding journey to the Highlands is the equivalent of a continental expedition, in the hope they can replicate their Europa League form in a domestic assignment.
It is little wonder the Rangers managerisscratchinghishead in bewilderment at the dichotomy between the assured and accomplished display his team delivered in beating Braga in Portugal last week and the feckless and overwrought nature of their play in the subsequent defeats by Hearts and Hamilton Accies.
Like every other born and bred Rangers supporter at Ibrox on Wednesday night, Andy Halliday watched in despair and dismay as the 1-0 loss to Accies surely extinguished even the faintest hopes of reigniting a title challenge which had carried so much promise and momentum with the Old Firm victory at Celtic Park at the end of December.
An unused substitute as David Moyo’s 56th-minute goal condemned Rangers to the latest setback in a shockingly inconsistent and damaging run of results since the winter break, Halliday was able to offer an insight into the mood of a squad which Gerrard believes is suffering from a crisis of confidence.
“The dressing room after the game was one of the lowest since I’ve been here and I’ve had my fair share of low moments at the football club,” said Halliday.
“It’s especially more difficult when we put ourselves in a good position going into the winter break and for it to fall apart so quickly is bitterly disappointing.
“I can’t put my finger on what has gone wrong. All I can do, and I know it’s empty words, is on behalf of all the players offerourcompleteandsincere apologies to the supporters.
“The performances since the winter break have been absolutely miles off it and we can’t put our finger on it. For five or six months this season, we lookedsodangerousandwe’re still in European competition and performing really well there but domestically it’s a completely different Rangers.”
Given their outstanding record in the Europa League under Gerrard, it would not be any great surprise if Rangers rise to the occasion again next Thursday night when they face Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen at Ibrox in the first leg of their last-16 tie.
But their success while filling the role of underdogs in Europe cannot mitigate for their failure to assert their authority against domestic opposition, with Halliday admitting that the Rangers players are struggling to cope with the expectations placed upon them on the home front.
“This is a special club and a heavy jersey and right now we’re not filling it,” he added. “For six months, the players were doing ever so well and any task flung their way they dealt with but just now we look shot of confidence.
“Hamilton deserved to take something from the game on Wednesday but my feeling once they went 1-0 up was that Ifearedforusbecauseourconfidence looked shot and I didn’t see it turning quickly.
“A couple of chances didn’t fall our way but regardless of that, we didn’t deserve to win the game. We looked too desperate to get the goal and lost our shape out of possession.
“I lost count of the amount of times we put a ball into Hamilton’s box and when they cleared it, a Hamilton player picked it up.
“That’s because we were too desperate. We lost our shape and discipline and too many boys were flooding the box trying to get that goal. Sometimes you need to be a bit more patient and you can sustain more attacks and make it difficult for Hamilton to get out their half.
“I thought Braga last week would be the turning point and kickstart our season and put in a positive push for the remainder of the season. But we have followed that up with two extremely disappointing performances against Hearts and Hamilton.”
Assuming champions Celtic win at home against St Mirren on Saturday afternoon, that yawning 16-point gap at the
“For five or six months, we looked so dangerous and we’re still in Europe and performing really well but domestically it’s a completely different Rangers”
ANDY HALLIDAY
Premiership summit will confront Gerrard and his underperforming players when they take the field in Dingwall.
The Rangers boss must hope that so many of the players he has hung his hat on since taking the job –most notably captain James Tavernier, defender Connor Goldson and striker Alfredo Morelos – can quickly find their way out of individual plummets in form which have underpinned the collective failure of his team since January.
“I’m asking questions of why we have played ourselves into this rut and why confidence is so low, because we have got really good players in the dressing room,” reflected Gerrard. “They don’t look like the group of players who were doing ever so well a short time ago.
“We all have to stick together and try to play our way out of it – because we’ve played our way into it and have ourselves to blame.”