Russell Martin last night let rip at the Self-Preservation Society dragging down the Rangers dressing-room and vowed to weed out the egos and hiders that were lucky to escape from Fir Park with a 1-1 draw.
The Ibrox head coach saw yesterday begin with a £3million fee being agreed with Dutch club Go Ahead Eagles for Finnish winger Oliver Antman.
However, it quickly turned into a nightmare with a terrible display at Motherwell seeing home forward Emmanuel Longelo cancel out a James Tavernier opener with three minutes to play – and Rangers keeper Jack Butland then having to save a point in time added-on when denying Tom Sparrow.
Rangers have now failed to win their opening-day league fixture for three straight seasons and Martin read the riot act afterwards with a scathing critique of his side and their mental fragility.
‘The problem should be tactical. It shouldn’t be mentality,’ said Martin. ‘We have too many guys that slip into self-preservation mode and I think it’s been a fact of this club for the last few years, for sure.
‘When it’s going well, you’re all-in, you want to run, you want the ball. It’s nice, but, when it’s not going well, you don’t want to run so much, you pick and choose when you want to run.
Martin had plenty to shout about after watching his side draw at Motherwell
Home hero Longelo (centre) is hailed by team-mates after netting the equaliser
‘You pick and choose when you want to compete and mark your player from a throw-in or a corner. You pick and choose when to run back, and it’s unacceptable for this sort of club.
‘For us as a coaching staff, this is not acceptable. We’re six weeks in. There will be issues, but the issue today is purely mentality. Too much ego, too much self-preservation, and you’re either all in all the time or you’re not.
‘If you’re not, you just won’t play very much. I’m very disappointed and a bit hurt and a bit angry at a lot of stuff I saw.
‘The problems haven’t been tactical yet, really. They’ve been mentality, about energy, about courage, intensity, aggression, to play. We haven’t started games well enough in the first half in the two European games.
‘We then showed a bit more willingness to trust the detail in each other and work. Then, today, we go ahead and we’re playing some OK stuff. Every time we get in the final third, we turn the ball over and make crazy decisions.
‘They’re either selfish decisions or they’re based on anxiety, so we need to get to the bottom of that – because there was far too much stuff that we haven’t worked on or haven’t seen.
‘I take full responsibility for it, but that hurts me more than anything.’
Martin admitted he has not been entirely surprised by the mentality problems which surfaced with a vengeance in Motherwell.
‘When I knew I was in for the job, I watched a lot of games where players could do what they want and that’s not on the manager,’ he said.
Lyall Cameron was one of a few players who earned pass marks from the Rangers boss
‘I thought Barry Ferguson did a great job, I could see what Philippe Clement was trying to do. But players sometimes? Yeah, same problems really, want to run, sometimes don’t.
‘You need better mentality than that to play for this football club and to actually win things.
‘We’ll work out the guys who are all-in all the time. Lyall Cameron came on, was fantastic. John (Souttar), Nasser (Djiga), Jack (Butland) did great.
‘We have to solve it as a group. We’ve been really demanding with them on certain rules. Not many, just, I think, really basic ones that should be demanded at this football club.
‘A little bit of resistance to that from some, not a lot, because they know and understand why and it’s best for them.’
Martin was aware of an angry reaction from the visiting support at time-up and had no problem with that at all.
‘I 100-per-cent understand,’ he said. ‘I was as angry as they were. So I completely understand the supporters’ reaction. We have a point that we didn’t deserve.
‘We let them down. The mentality of the team, I spoke about it so much since we came in, and it was a big problem.’
Antman is expected to complete his transfer in the coming days and Martin is clear he needs more to turn this team around as he prepares for Tuesday’s Champions League third qualifying round first leg with Viktoria Plzen at Ibrox.
‘We need some better players to help us, for sure,’ he said. ‘We need some players that we feel will do what we’re asking them to do all the time.
‘The ones who are here are good enough to do it. They just need to make a choice if they want to do it.
Finland winger Antman (left) could complete his move to Rangers this week after a fee was agreed with current club Go Ahead Eagles
‘There’s different groups of people at every club. Some are looking and going: “That’s too much for me. It’s too much. Demand’s too much. Training’s too much”.
‘They just want to float through a little bit, so they get left behind. That’s fine. Then you have the guys in the middle who can go either way but they’ll always be attracted to what is the majority.
‘I feel we have the majority who want to play in this way and understand it will make them successful. The ones maybe in the middle need to go that way or they’ll just be left behind.
Asked if bad mentalities can be overcome, Martin replied: ‘Yes, because it’s a reflection of me ultimately. Whenever I leave this football club in a few years, hopefully in a long time, the problem won’t be the mentality of the team.’
