John Souttar tells furious Rangers fans it's ‘unfair' under-fire boss Russell Martin is copping all their criticism

Scottish Sun

17 hours ago

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JOHN SOUTTAR has jumped to the defence of under-fire Rangers manager Russell Martin.
And the centre-back is willing to have himself and his teammates take their share of fans' fury.
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John Souttar has backed Russell Martin after Rangers' disastrous Champions League qualifying defeat
Credit: Getty
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Gers' new boss has come in for major criticism for the 3-1 beating by Club Brugge
Credit: Getty
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Souttar revealed he felt he and his teammates needed to take their share of the blame
Credit: Willie Vass
Rangers crumbled to a 3-1 defeat to Club Brugge in Champions League qualifying last night, and Souttar came out in support for Martin after the boos rang around Ibrox.
Souttar said: "I think it's not fair for one person to take the flak, I think we all have to take it.
"It's not just the manager, I think we are all due it.
"Everyone at this club who wants to play here has to understand that when things are not going well and demands are not met, then you are going to take flak, you need to accept that.
"In the first half on Tuesday we actually shot ourselves in the foot with how we started.
"When you give away the goals we did, that makes any game difficult.
"Especially a game like that when there is so much at stake and we are playing against a team of that quality.
"In the second half we were a bit better and made them a bit more uncomfortable, but the damage was done before that."
Gers travel to Belgium next Wednesday with it all to do, but Souttar revealed that he hasn't given up all hope of a turnaround.
He continued: "We brought pressure on ourselves by conceding those two goals in the manner we did.
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"That makes everything harder so we have to go over there and be on the front foot.
"We can't afford to give goals away the way we did.
"We need to implement our game plan on them, instead of giving them the start we did.
"There is still the belief because we have had big results away from home in Europe in the last few years.
"But there is no point saying that, we need to go and show it."
"Of course we have to cling on to [an improved second half], we have to cling on to something.
"The way we played in the second half, we were on the front foot but obviously it's easier when you have nothing to lose.
"We wanted to start like that, but when you lose two goals like that it naturally derails everything.
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"We were a bit better in the second half and when we go over there next week we've got to play like that.
"On Tuesday night, we gave them confidence and that made life so difficult.
"We've had good European nights here and Ibrox has been a place where opposition teams don't feel comfortable, but we gave Brugge that comfort.
"So when you give teams that comfort, it's a lot easier for them to play out from the back, take risks and be more relaxed, and we gifted them that luxury.
"It's important when we have European games here that we get the crowd on our side and make the opposition uncomfortable.
"That's our biggest asset and we just didn't do that."
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