Dreadful Dingwall Display Takes Title Fate Out Of Rangers Hands

An absolutely spinless display against Ross County have taken the fate of the Scottish Premiership out of Rangers hands. Yet again fans had to watch on as some familiar faces absolutely bottled the chance to remain on the front foot in the title race.

The defence was awful, the midfield was non-existent and there was nothing of note happening up top. How have we got to this stage of the season, being in a good position to win the title and turned in a performance like that?

Ross County, who are STILL eleventh in the league, wanted it more and, honestly, they deserved the victory. In twenty-one previous matches, they had only managed four draws and seventeen defeats against us. Yet, you would never have been able to tell that watching that game.

This Rangers team needs a clear out and many of the ‘senior’ players can count themselves lucky if they’re still at Ibrox next season.

Team Selection

Squad rotation is something that needs to happen throughout a season. However, bringing in Barisic for Sterling didn’t seem like a change that had to be made. With Ridvan due back soon, he could rotate with Sterling but the Croatian left back showed, again, why many Rangers fans won’t be disappointed to see him go.

The left back lost possession nine times in fifty-four minutes. He also only had 67% pass accuracy and looked a bomb scare at the back. There shouldn’t be any reason for him to get more minutes this season. The club needs to shake his hand and wave him off, respectfully.

Kieran Dowell coming in also seemed a strange decision, especially over Lawrence or Raskin. The Englishman has barely played and even in his Old Firm cameo, had some awful moments.

His biggest contributions last week were not tracking/pressing Bernardo and whipping a blind pass into the middle of our own box. The fact he stayed on till the sixty-third minute was also mind blowing.

Lack of Half-Time Changes

Philippe Clement said in the post match presser that he told the players it wasn’t good enough. He was giving them a chance to come out and perform better. The question is though, should Barisic, Dowell and Silva have been given that chance? (Those three mentioned as they were the first ones subbed off)

Giving the players that chance to get their act together led to Ross County quickly taking a 2-1 lead. Then the changes came, was it already too late then though? The team hadn’t been performing well and their heads seemed to be all over the place.

Would half time changes been more of a shot in the arm than stern words from Clement? Would the changes have prevented the concession of those two goals?

Obviously it’s impossible to say but, in hindsight, those players shouldn’t have been given the chance to turn it around in the second half.

Conclusion

The title race isn’t over, however, it’s now going to take something really special for Rangers to win the league. It now looks likely that we will have to go to Parkhead and win, instead of just avoiding defeat. Rangers haven’t won at Parkhead since August 2021.

Before that though, Rangers need to go to Dundee on Wednesday night and pick up the three points. Anything other than that will be a surrender of the title.

It’s an absolutely massive ask for this team to now go on and win the title. Despite the criticism Clement has faced today, if he can turn it around, again, he may be a genuine genius.

How are you feeling after yesterdays result? Is it already over?

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