We’re hardly in better moods now that we’re well beyond the full-time mark, and while there was a touch of knee jerk about our immediate post-full time article, we still can’t see how it’s exactly wrong.
Steven Gerrard’s reign is not working on the domestic front. Rangers have just, to the best of our recollection, and we’re sure history buffs can correct us, lost two domestic matches in a row to bottom teams for the first time in our history.
Furthermore, the fact Celtic had a shocker tonight and could only draw at Livi was a gilt-edge chance to bring the gap closer, but instead, they drop points and pull FURTHER away.
There is a deep, deep problem at Ibrox, and more and more frequently fans attribute it to Dubai.
In truth, we don’t know – we’ve been desperate (bar 110 minutes v Braga) this calendar year, and we can honestly not ever recall playing this badly, certainly not since Gerrard took charge.
It’s patently clear something has gone wrong, but the more fans that just blindly say ‘trust in Stevie’ the more this will continue.
The players just aren’t doing it for the manager in the way they should, and while fans have blamed Connor Goldson, he wasn’t the one who couldn’t score at the other end against the bottom team two matches running.
Gerrard takes a lot of the responsibility for this, for trusting in players who keep letting him down.
While the first half wasn’t the worst performance ever, it certainly wasn’t good – maybe a 20% improvement over Tynecastle, and as a number of supporters have pointed out, tonight was the big response to all the controversy over Saturday – the big statement to show the team is united and behind the manager
It clearly isn’t. On either count.
Gerrard believes there was more effort and desire, and we admit there was, but not an awful lot of it, and not enough to pound the Hamilton goal and come away with three points.
Rangers are in desperate trouble now, a disease of low confidence and malaise has spread in, and every player and every staff member must take their share of responsibility.
And by Gerrard’s post-match comments, it doesn’t sound like they did.