Motherwell 1 Rangers 1: Martin maddened as hosts show mettle to snatch a point late on

Daily Mail​

a day ago

Clearly appalled at watching his side cough up possession and end up sliced wide open again and again by a Motherwell team smelling blood during a chaotic second half, Rangers head coach Russell Martin didn't go hard enough in his savaging of the egos, fragile mentalities and hide-and-seek champions lucky to escape Fir Park with a point.
This is a squad that needs pretty much all the old guard cleared out. A squad that specialises in bottling it and going missing in domestic matches.
Martin sees that now. Knows it now. And needs his sporting director Kevin Thelwell to speed up the exits and maybe make plans for a few more recruits after this absolute shambles.
Forget all the stuff about changing styles and needing patience. Martin's side, earning multiple amounts of money more than their Motherwell counterparts, simply fell apart against a spirited, adventurous opponent and went completely into their shells. They turned off when it got tough.
Martin called them out after it, to be fair. His is a squad still full of the losers who've seen boss after boss off the premises. And might well see him off too unless he sticks with his harsh post-match words and starts leaving them behind for good.
With the creation of chances becoming a serious problem after a decent beginning, Rangers simply failed to show for the start of the second half and played second fiddle from that point onwards until the final whistle – seeing an early lead served up by captain James Tavernier cancelled out by Emmanuel Longelo three minutes from the end of regulation time.
It was beyond pathetic. These are games Rangers need to win if they are to justify the confidence expressed by Martin on Friday in having a starting XI ready to compete for the title. They didn't. They got the sore face they deserved and Martin finished up with egg on his.
Indeed, were it not for goalkeeper Jack Butland making a crucial save from home sub Tom Sparrow in the fourth minute of time added-on, this would have been an opening-day defeat. It should have been.
Their backline was sprung so often on the counter that it began to feel like Groundhog Day. Needless to say, it's exactly how that last-gasp opportunity presented itself. Simple stuff. Yet too much for Rangers to handle.
Longelo picked up the ball out left, played a forward pass and Sparrow raced behind a static rearguard to put himself through one-on-one.
What a chance it was, but fair play to Butland for standing tall and saving, as he has done on a number of occasions during Rangers' three competitive matches so far. It cannot possibly go on like this for the Ibrox side, though. Martin's side is just so open, so porous, so adept at playing its way into bother.
Their season is going to unravel spectacularly quickly if they don't find a way to tighten up while continuing to aspire to the style and strategy their new leader desires. They need to show up too, though.
Seven of the starting XI are remnants from the old regime. The bench contained even more. As witnessed on plenty of occasions last term, a failure to make chances and an inability to defend can – and will - be costly.
It is no excuse for the performance delivered against a Motherwell side that deserves no end of credit for the passing football and commitment to attack delivered under the new coach Jens Berthel Askou, but wingers Oliver Antman and Mikey Moore, who watched from the stand, should make a difference to the forward line.
Kieran Dowell certainly isn't the answer. Nor is Danilo. He showed little during his hour on the park. Cyriel Dessers made a late appearance, but Rangers need to be selling him or Hamza Igamane and spending the cash on a proper centre-forward they can depend upon.
A new left-back is needed to allow Max Aarons to move to his proper position and replace James Tavernier. It goes on and on. There are sellable assets in this squad in Mohamed Diomande and Nico Raskin and they shouldn't be safe either.
Thelo Aasgaard will soon be back from injury to take the left-sided role of a midfield three and, right now, it's not certain where Raskin, taken off yesterday, will fit in to Martin's first-choice XI.
What made the day all the more disappointing for Martin is that it started fairly well.
A bright start saw a Tavernier free-kick palmed wide by goalkeeper Calum Ward and a splendid passing move end with Djeidi Gassama, in for his first start, sending a low effort wide.
Danilo then hit the bar with a clever chip before Rangers took the lead. Paul McGinn conceded a corner, Rothwell sent in a terrific delivery from the left and Tavernier rose unmarked to power a downward header into the net. Ward got a hand to the ball, but couldn't stop it from crossing the line.
The main criticism of the home side, though, was the failure to pick up Tavernier's run and the failure to put in a challenge on him.
That should have been the ideal platform from which to build, but Martin's men came dangerously close to conceding an equaliser midway through the first half.
A ball infield by Johnny Koutroumbis was poorly dealt with by Tavernier in a central position and gave Elliot Watt the opportunity to play Longelo in on goal with a first-time pass.
His angled effort was poorly struck, but visiting keeper Jack Butland spilled the effort straight to Apostolos Stamatelopolous. The Aussie had more time than he perhaps thought and blasted his effort straight at Butland. It was a fortunate escape.
By that stage, the game had become altogether more competitive with Rangers' early dominance fading. When the second half got underway, the visitors just fell off a cliff completely.
On 51 minutes, Callum Slattery picked out Elijah Just unmarked at the back post. All he had to do was direct the ball home from close-range. Instead, it bounced off his nut and went wide.
Moments later, Slattery was creating havoc again. A sliderule ball from midfield caught that high Rangers defensive line square and Stamatelopolous raced through the centre to find himself with a clear sight of goal.
The long legs of Nasser Djiga got back quickly, though, to make a saving challenge.
Wave after wave of attack from the home side was flooding in and it took a fine one-handed save from Butland to stop a low curling effort from McGinn finding the far corner. Souttar hacked the loose ball clear with some desperate defending as Stamatelopolous readied himself to fire it home.
Motherwell came desperately close again with 20 minutes to play. Just fired in a curling cross, Stamatelopolous beat Souttar in the air and his header went just over the bar from only a matter of yards out.
It was no shock when the leveller arrived, mind you. It had been a long time coming. It's just a wonder Rangers didn't let the roof fall in completely late on.
They were awful. Martin was right to be fuming. But turning this around is going to be a monumental task.