By Alistair Aird
Spring may well soon by sprung, but the weather was typically drab and drizzly ahead of Barry Ferguson’s homecoming. The man who won 15 major honours as a Rangers player was a left-field appointment to take over from the bungling Belgian, Philippe Clement, on an interim basis, but on the evidence of his first match in charge at Rugby Park, Ferguson has already had a galvanising effect on the squad. After a horrific start that saw Rangers fortunate only to trail by two goals, Ferguson made a bold call. He hooked Clinton Nsiala inside half an hour and that alteration bore fruit as it changed the game. From that point on, Rangers responded and were rampant, particularly in the second half.
Looking to get back to winning ways on home turf after two successive Ibrox defeats, the Rangers XI showed just one change from the midweek win at Rugby Park. on Wednesday, Nsiala dropped out of the matchday squad completely and his place in the team that started went to Ridvan Yilmaz. Connor Barron, Dujon Sterling and Leon Balogun were back in contention too.
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That meant that James Tavernier would mark his 500th competitive appearance playing at centre back, a role he excelled in against Kilmarnock.
I wrote an article on the captain that was published on the Follow Follow website on Friday. Ostensibly, I penned it to pay tribute to Tavernier’s longevity and acknowledge that despite the lack of silverware in his decade at Ibrox, he deserves to be regarded as a Rangers great. But I also knew it would stimulate debate among the fans as few players have split opinion as much as Tavernier. He is the perennial scapegoat when things are going awry – as they have done on numerous occasions over the past 10 years – but our interim manager was spot on in his press conference yesterday. Tavernier never hides and is always available. Some of the horrendous abuse he has been subjected to must have got to him – he is a human being after all, not a robot – but he hasn’t shown that. And amidst the direst of straits, Tavernier could have left the club, but he didn’t. He has been the vanguard and the troubled times we have experienced would have been far worse had we not had someone of the ilk of Tavernier in the team.
On the subject of much maligned players, Cyriel Dessers was once again selected to lead the line. Another player who polarises opinion, Dessers is like Tavernier. He has been lambasted but never hides. His work ethic is exemplary and when he gets knocked down, he gets back up again. There may be better number nines out there, but 42 goals in 95 appearances is a respectable return. Of those 95 appearances, 66 have been as part of the starting XI and Dessers averages a goal every 136 minutes. He has his flaws, and he frequently frustrates, but as he showed on Wednesday, he has an eye for goal and is already on course to surpass his total of 22 goals from last season.
Callum Slattery got proceedings underway, and within 20 seconds, Rangers were on the back foot following the concession of a corner. Motherwell worked it short, but it came to nothing and Rangers were soon foraying forward. Hagi was upended as he surged forward – the Motherwell player should have been yellow carded – and the Romanian’s poor delivery was sliced away for a corner. The man of the moment – Tavernier – took it, but it drifted over the heads of everyone that had ventured into the penalty area.
Another corner was forthcoming after five minutes. Dessers did superbly to cushion the ball for Raskin and his slide rule pass sent Cerny scampering towards goal. As is his wont, he tried to work the ball on to his left foot before shooting and that allowed the danger to be snuffed out.
Motherwell had the ball in the net after nine minutes. Dessers was loose in possession and Dan Casey shot for goal. His tame effort was spilled by Butland and Luke Armstrong nipped in to score. His celebrations were cut short by the raised flag of the assistant referee, but VAR intervened, and the goal was awarded.
After excelling for most of last season, it was another costly error from Jack Butland. Lauded as a worthy successor to Allan McGregor, Butland’s form dipped towards the end of the campaign, and he hasn’t hit the heights this season either. He must eradicate the errors and perhaps working with McGregor will help Butland regain his focus and propel him back to the pedestal he was on in the early months of his time at Ibrox.
There was some ping pong in and around the Motherwell box after 19 minutes but much like the match at Rugby Park, Rangers were struggling to get a foothold in the game. In the opening 20 minutes, there was only one touch of the ball in the opposition penalty area – Motherwell had had six at the other end – and the visitors also had the upper hand with ‘final third entries’, seven to five.
Thomas Sparrow almost doubled Motherwell’s lead when played in on goal, but he slashed his effort into the side netting. The disquiet that had been evident in the dying embers of the Clement era was starting to ripple around the stands, and Ferguson, standing in the technical area with hands thrust in his pockets, was cutting a frustrated figure. And his mood wasn’t helped when Dessers failed to make the most of a good cross into the area from Jefte.
Just shy of the half hour mark, it was 2-0. It was another move that was strewn with errors from Rangers players, with possession surrendered cheaply before Jefte was posted missing as Sparrow ran in on Butland and found the net.
For the second match in succession the Rangers defence had been ropey. Midweek Ferguson intervened and took decisive action to remedy the situation. Would he do the same on this occasion?
Dessers lashed a shot into the side netting and Rangers were ragged at best. The players to a man looked panic stricken and Motherwell looked as if they could score every time they ventured forward.
Five minutes from the interval, Hagi scuffed a shot wide when a pass to Jefte was the better option. That raised the ire of the fans as did Ridvan overcooking a simple pass to Igamane. Had he executed it properly, the young Moroccan would have been clean through on goal.
Diomande stung the palms of Ellery Balcolmbe with a shot from range as half time approached but successive corners came to nothing. And a wretched and insipid first 45 minutes was summed up when Hagi overhit a pass on the left when trying to play in an overlapping Jefte.
There have been several poor first half displays this season, but this was up there with the worst of them. There was no cohesion at all to Rangers’ play and very little attacking threat. In addition, the ropey and ragged defence looked like it could be breached again. Ferguson needed to find a miracle cure to all those ailments when he faced the players in the dressing room at the interval.
A measure of the manager’s dissatisfaction came when the teams re-emerged. Three changes were made, with Balogun, Bajrami and Lawrence taking over from Propper, Hagi and Igamane. In all honesty, Ferguson could have taken any of his starting XI off such was the level of underperformance but as the sun came out, the home fans hoped the fresh faces could light a fire that would warm them up and steer Rangers on to the comeback trail.
Initial signs weren’t good. Rangers remained ragged and loose in possession. Jefte, who had had a nightmare, was booked four minutes after the restart and Dominic Thompson forced Butland to paw away his left foot shot. He was flagged offside but it was another ominous moment for the hapless home side.
Rangers were floundering. They desperately needed a goal and after 55 minutes, the lifeline was thrown. Ridvan popped a ball into the box, and it fell into the path of Dessers who was clinical. His tally was now 43 in 96 and once again the Nigerian had provided an answer to the question of who was going to come to the fore and rescue Rangers.
Bajrami almost equalised when his shot from distance was parried by Balcolmbe and the vim, verve and vigour that had been absent up until this point was back.
Despite the defensive fragility of Rangers, it looked at this point that Motherwell were content to suffocate the game and kill time. Rather than push for a third goal, the visitors were happy to sit deep and invite Rangers to find a way through the banks of white that they had constructed.
With the home side struggling to do that, Ferguson shuffled the pack. With 16 minutes left, Danilo came on for Diomande and it looked now as if Rangers were set up in a 4-2-4. Lawrence had dropped deep alongside Raskin, while Danilo and Dessers were flanked by Bajrami and Cerny.
The change almost reaped an instant reward. A lovely touch from Dessers played in Danilo, but rather than pull the trigger and shoot for goal, the Brazilian elected to square the ball for Dessers and it was cut out. There was no excuse, had Danilo shot, it would have been 2-2.
Dessers dinked the ball into the net with 11 minutes to go but was flagged offside. A VAR check followed and when the lines were drawn, the decision of the assistant referee was upheld. The sands of time were running out for Rangers.
Rangers made their fifth and final change with seven minutes to go when Sterling replaced Ridvan. Shortly afterwards, Danilo was denied by Balcolmbe and then had a header cleared off the line. From the follow up, Tavernier blazed the ball high into the Copland Stand.
Although four additional minutes were announced, there would be no grandstand finish. Danilo was thwarted again and there was some ping pong in the box following a corner but this game was lost thanks to an abysmal first half display.
This team continues to rewrite the wrong records as for the first time since 2012, a Rangers team has lost three matches in a row at Ibrox. On that occasion, Dundee United knocked us out the Scottish Cup and that was followed by two league defeats post-admin at the hands of Kilmarnock and Hearts.
This is a squad of players devoid of confidence and lacking guile and spark. It is arguably the poorest group we have had at our disposal for many years. They now stumble on and travel to Istanbul to face Fenerbache before welcoming them to Ibrox a week later. A trip to the east end of Glasgow follows that double header and even the most ardent and positive Rangers supporter would struggle to see any sort of positive outcome from those fixtures.
Troubled times indeed.