A growing problem for Rangers?

We had been quietly impressed by January signing Russell Martin, if far from blown away, in the sense that Rangers have not been conceding too many goals overall in this calendar year.

But we must be honest and admit that close inspection of his performances does not exactly back up our thoughts, and the past two matches especially have seen fans reacting a little more negatively to him.

Indeed, four goals conceded against Ayr and Hamilton is actually a pretty concerning number, and if we are equally honest, David Bates too has looked a little shaky.

And the less said about the increasingly poor Wes Foderingham the better.

But 32-year old Martin was brought in to secure the backline, a spiritual replacement for the underwhelming Bruno Alves, to lead those around him, and there’s a growing feeling that the defence which previously had so much potential is starting to look like Rangers’ weak spot, albeit many fans already thought it was in the first place.

In fact, before this transfer window, we at Ibrox Noise were actually happy with it, with captain Danny Wilson helping to lead the line and forging a half decent partnership with David Bates.

Since Wilson left, however, there have been murmurs of discontent about how effective the rearguard actually is and four goals conceded in two matches is not really good enough going forward.

Both Martin and Bates have been guilty of mistakes recently, and while it is only a fledgling partnership, and should be given time, it must be remembered that Bates was ditched by Scottish Championship Raith Rovers and Martin was abandoned by English Championship Norwich.

Of course we got Slim Jim from Raith too, but that was us plundering a smaller team for their best players, not taking lower league teams’ cast offs.

For now, midfield and attack are doing very well indeed, even if some quarters of the support complained about Greg Docherty’s performance on Sunday. Hence failings at the back are being compensated at the front.

But we have expressed concerns about the depth in fullback, their positioning and the form of Foderingham – well, it seems the central berth is becoming an issue as well.

Thankfully Saturday’s opponents Hearts’ overall form is not great with just two wins in their last five, but they do have an in form striker in Kyle Lafferty who has four in four.

It’s not the biggest problem Murty has ever had, but he’ll be hoping his back five get their act together by the weekend, especially in light of Rangers’ troubling form at Ibrox.