Russell Martin blamed Rangers’ latest defensive horror show on the mentality of his players rather than his tactical approach.
The Ibrox side lost 2-1 to Sturm Graz in Austria after shipping two dreadful goals in the opening 35 minutes – and couldn’t get back on level terms after a change of shape at half-time and a strike from Djeidi Gassama early in the second half.
They now sit 32nd in the 36-team Europa League table with two losses from two fixtures and with boss Martin’s record now reading just five wins from 16. The Ibrox club have also gone 23 consecutive away games without keeping a clean sheet, equalling a club record dating back to 1897.
‘We have to improve the mentality quickly,’ said Martin. ‘This is not a technical, tactical problem.
‘The mentality in the second half was brilliant – to compete, to fight, to run. We didn’t do that in the first 20 minutes and we paid the price for it.
‘You can’t start that poorly. We still had loads of chances in the first half, but they had too many, all from set-play or throw-in.
Russell Martin looks unimpressed during last night’s 2-1 defeat to Sturm Graz in Austria
Boss Martin gives the thumbs up but he was not happy with his team’s mentality in first half
Djeidi Gassama pulled a goal back for Rangers but they failed to find an equaliser
‘We just have to be brighter, organised quicker and help each other more, so the mentality is the problem. We are not doing what we should do on the set-play, we are not doing what we should do on our throw-in.
‘That’s, like, a mentality issue. We caused them a lot of problems in the first half and were so dominant in the second half. Of course, we gave up a couple of chances late on because we were throwing everything at it, but we should score more goals.
‘You come away from a game in Europe and have that many chances, big chances, you cannot lose the game.
‘It is a mentality thing. We have to look at it. We have a lot of young men and they have to learn really quickly.’
Martin has been critical of the mentality of his players already this season and gave a more detailed appraisal of what went wrong in his after-match comments on the club’s in-house TV station.
‘(At the first goal), we’ve been hurt by our own throw-in, because we don’t do the right thing, and then a set-play where we don’t want to block runners and we don’t want to compete.
‘That’s really frustrating, especially when we have done so much work on it and improved so much in that area recently.
‘The most frustrating thing is we are not set up in the way we should be and the way we work on. I said to the players the mentality in the first half-hour compared to the rest of the game is too far apart. Yes, we changed shape in the second half, but it is about aggression, mentality, to actually run and fight and compete.’
Martin believes the second half performance showed there are clear improvements in his squad – despite fans showing no sign of stopping relentless calls for his removal along with CEO Patrick Stewart.
Rangers players look crestfallen, but the manager later questioned their mentality
Martin bellows instructions to his players during a second defeat in league phase of Europa League
Otar Kiteishvili scores the vital second goal for Sturm Graz in 2-1 win over Rangers
Gassama fires home his goal for Rangers at the start of the second half in Austria
‘It is an interesting time,’ Martin told TNT Sports. ‘It is frustrating, because we are showing signs of so much growth and improvement. Even in this game, we had some brilliant moments and were really dominant. It is just frustrating to lose the game.’
Canadian centre-back Derek Cornelius branded Rangers ‘naive’ and he admitted there were discussions among the players about the need to show pride and fight on the pitch.
‘We didn’t start the match well,’ he stated. ‘We can’t be naive going into any game, really. We found ourselves 2-0 down and we are chasing the game in the second half.
‘We got one back, but we weren’t good enough. We need to be better.
‘I don’t know what the problem is. It seems like there are moments where everyone is switched on and tuned-in and then other moments where we are just not.
‘It can switch like that in the match and I don’t know why, but we cannot be accepting that. We need to really fix those things.’
Revealing there were some conversations in the dressing-room over these recurring flaws, he added: ‘We just said that we cannot be like this. We need to react. We need to show pride. We need to really fight on the pitch.’
