“Same Old Rangers” Under Russell Martin As Familiar Patterns Appear Even In A Friendly | OneFootball

So Rangers have finally completed our first formal pre-season friendly under new manager Russell Martin. And what observations can Ibrox Noise bring of his debut in Govan?

The biggest takeaway, aside from our match report that we offered earlier, is that nothing much has really changed. Rangers still come slow out of the blocks and play abysmally for 45 minutes, while then upping the ante a little bit in the second half and potentially retrieving what went wrong in the first 45.

Rangers have had this problem for a number of managers now, and although it’s “only a friendly”, it’s still exactly the same pattern as we’ve been used to before. Regardless of those who might say it was just a runabout, or it was about getting minutes in the legs, or it was about getting fitness, or it was about testing things, nevertheless, the same pattern of being extremely poor for 45 minutes then being a bit better in the second remains a massive axe to grind with the Rangers faithful.

We’re not quite sure what causes this, and we will also confess the starting 11 looked absolutely diabolical on paper, especially with a flimsy defence that was about as robust as a sieve. We have real problems back there, and yes we now have Emmanuel Fernandez, who may be potentially a unit of a boy a bit like Calvin Bassey, but is like that former Rangers player in the sense that he makes the same mistakes. He is not good on the ball, has poor passing, and has no composure, but if you want a tough unit who will run himself into where it hurts, then yes, Fernandez could be of use, but this is what posh stroke Peterborough fans said about him.

So, whether or not he will turn out to be a good signing, time will tell, but Robin Proper and Leon King are so far beneath the level required for this club, it’s untrue. It was their mistakes once again which cost Rangers goals, and yes, this is the time to make them, as we keep hearing from fans who back everything, but unfortunately, patterns are continuing.

This is nothing new. Russell Martin is seeing for himself the very stuff that Rangers fans have been watching for years, the stuff that Rangers fans have been suffering for years, and by his debut at Ibrox it appears he is going through exactly the same thing.

What’s the definition of insanity? It’s doing the same things over and over again and hoping for a different outcome. Rangers are definitely insane, no matter who the manager is. We keep doing the same things, starting the same players, the same ones who have let us down in the past.

Yes, again, “only a friendly”, and we hope that things will change, but once again a manager picking the same players who have let us down in competitive and friendlies alike doesn’t bode well.

That said, we don’t want to be too fatalistic. It was “just a friendly”, and it is nevertheless a match with no repercussions, but we don’t like seeing the same patterns.

Bright spots? Well, at least there were a few. Shock horror, Bajrami actually played quite well. He provided an assist, no less. Finlay Curtis is also promising. We don’t want to put too much pressure on the lad, no way – the number of times that we’ve done that before and we’ve seen a youngster completely crumble. Think of Alex Lowry.

There was also a bright cameo from new signing Max Aarons, who did of course debut – not strictly a cameo. He looked not bad, but it’s early days, and it is of course only a friendly, as we’re going to keep on saying many, many times throughout this article, and have done already.

Obviously, we’re not going to draw too many conclusions, but nevertheless, as we have preached a few times before, the only time in the last 13 seasons that Rangers have had a good pre-season with decent friendly results was 55. That was the only time that the results being positive led to a positive outcome in the season.

Every other pre-season, they’ve either been utterly mixed at best or downright poor. So far, we’ve had a loss and a draw. It doesn’t exactly point to 56 next season, but once again, Ibrox Noise will hold our hands up high in concession of defeat if this manager and this squad turns out to be the answer.

We would love nothing more than to be wrong.