Graeme Souness was back in town last week, working through a busy round of media duties, and was in typically forthright form when the subject turned to Derek McInnes’ summer efforts to solve the shortage of leadership in the Rangers squad.
‘As long as they can f****** play,’ said the former Ibrox manager. ‘Time will tell. It’s early days…’
He is right on that point. The season is still in its infancy. Yet it is equally clear that unease among ordinary Rangers supporters is beginning to build, and the noise is getting harder to ignore.
Leadership in football no longer looks quite the way it did when Souness was imposing himself on matches. It is not simply about barking orders or raising voices. Modern leadership is about accepting responsibility in key moments, setting standards on the pitch and persuading others to come with you. At present, McInnes does not appear to have enough players capable of doing that.
And when it comes to the natural quality required to compete for major honours, the early evidence is hardly reassuring. On the limited sample of the past 10 days, Rangers look short in that department as well.
Striker Lawrence Shankland is denied by Adam Mayor in Rangers’ 2-1 home loss to Hibs
Following a stuttering start away to Dundee United and Jagiellonia Bialystok, many Rangers fans arrived expecting this to be the afternoon when their revamped side finally clicked into gear. Instead, their optimism quickly drained away.
Rangers were well short of the required tempo in the first half and slipped behind after Josh Campbell scored from a controversial penalty. From there, they laboured and strained, but produced too little to change the mood.
A freakish own goal by Miguel Chaiwa seemed destined to give them a point they would scarcely have deserved until they fell apart in injury time and watched Callum Wright re-establish Hibs’ advantage.
Notwithstanding the fact that the campaign is hardly underway, what a grim start this has been to life in the Rangers dug-out for McInnes.
Despite having a full pre-season to prepare, his players don’t look to be on the same page. Their play is pedestrian. They are shambolic defensively and wholly unconvincing on the front foot.
Make no mistake, ahead of Thursday’s return leg against the Poles, the storm clouds are already gathering. The loss of Youssef Chermiti to injury put the tin lid on a bleak afternoon.
What a day this was for David Gray. A third victory at Ibrox in as many seasons was claimed deservedly with a performance which was everything their opponents were not. They march on to Macedonia in bullish mood.
Evidently unimpressed with what his starting side produced against Jagiellonia on Thursday, McInnes made six changes. Unsurprisingly, Cammy Devlin and Findlay Curtis were among those stripped from the outset with Olwethu Makhanya making his debut. Bojan Miovski didn’t even make the bench.
Gray made four alterations from the team which narrowly defeated Shkendija – with Campbell, Ante Suto, Kanayo Megwa and Thibault Klidje introduced.
Signed predominantly as a holding midfielder, Vanja Dragojevic was intriguingly selected by McInnes at right-back ahead of Dujon Sterling and Ross McCrorie.
The Serb’s first Rangers’ start began in inauspicious fashion when he conceded a soft penalty inside 12 minutes while defending a corner kick. Truthfully, there wasn’t a great deal of contact but both VAR Matthew MacDermid and referee Don Robertson were convinced there was enough to penalise the new boy.
After a lengthy delay, Campbell kept his cool, confidently sending Ivor Pandur the wrong way from 12 yards.
Hibs midfielder Josh Campbell slots home an early penalty to give his team the lead at Ibrox
Rangers’ response came by way of Chermiti dragging a shot wide and Devlin doing the same after Lawrence Shankland had done well to win the ball back.
Dragojevic came close to redeeming himself with a strike from the edge of the box which was just off target.
Daisuke Yokota was by far the brightest player in blue. A nice drop of the shoulder by the winger allowed him to cut the ball back for Chermiti. Megwa’s positioning on the line kept Hibs ahead.
Raphael Sallinger still hadn’t made a meaningful save. Tuur Rommens’ strike from the edge of the box changed that although the keeper was always in command of the situation.
What was already a testing afternoon for the home side became all the more so when Chermiti failed to get up after flying into an advertising board. Ominously, the forward was stretchered up the tunnel with Ryan Naderi brought on.
Although Hibs stayed compact and difficult to break down, they still enjoyed the odd moment of promise in the final third. Klidge thought he’d doubled the advantage when the ball broke to him 10 years out only for his shot to flash over the bar.
Keen to atone, Dragojevic fired another shot from the edge of the box just wide. But as the half-time whistle approached, gilt-edged chances for the home side had been few and far between.
Manny Fernandez changed that with a superb clip over the top which took out the entire Hibs defence. Leaning back, Nico Raskin failed the hit the target when he ought to have done better.
Dragojevic didn’t reappear for the second half. Curtis dropped back to right-back with Mohamed Diomande thrown on.
Shankland wasn’t alone in having a tough time of it. But McInnes would have expected more – much more – than seeing his skipper ransacked while in possession.
Curtis smashed a shot off Jason Kerr’s back. Diomande’s follow-up was palmed away by Sallinger.
Shankland’s best contribution was a terrific pass round the corner which released Raskin. The Belgian’s shot lacked purchase.
Naderi’s flick-on then found Shankland. The striker seemed to do everything right as he drilled the ball towards goal only for it to strike Sallinger’s arm, the turf then the bar.
Derek McInnes is still waiting for his first victory after three matches as the Rangers manager
With Hibs increasingly sitting deeper, Rangers enjoyed their best spell of the contest. Thelo Aasgaard and Djeidi Gassama were thrown on.
Adam Mayor produced an extraordinary block to send Shankland’s effort over the top, although an earlier infringement meant it would not have counted.
Aasgaard did add a little bit of guile to proceedings. A drop of the shoulder and a pot shot from 18 yards came close to levelling the match.
The equaliser was a shocker from Hibs’ perspective. Under little pressure with five minutes remaining, substitute Felix Passlack turned the ball over.
Gassama could hardly believe his luck and fired a percentage ball across the box. Chaiwa, who’d been one of the best players on the pitch, knew nothing about it as the ball flew off him and beyond Sallinger.
With Rangers going for it, Shankland saw a header saved and Gassama saw an effort repelled by the keeper’s legs.
If they couldn’t win it, it was imperative that they didn’t lose it. Yet, in the third minute of injury time, the defence went to sleep again.
Sub Nathan Lowe found fellow replacement Wright on the counterattack. His shot had direction but not a great deal of power. Although it was deflected, Pandur didn’t look too clever. The same can be said of Rangers after just three games.
