James Tavernier branded Rangers’ performance ‘disgraceful’ as Danny Rohl’s debut as head coach ended in an embarrassing defeat to SK Brann.
Rangers crashed to a 3-0 loss as their chances of progressing in the Europa League suffered another blow. A third successive reverse leaves them requiring a miracle from their final five matches to stand a chance of qualifying to the knockout stages.
Rohl was appointed as Russell Martin’s successor in the dugout on Monday. And he was badly let down by his players as a dreadful showing allowed Brann to ease to a commanding victory.
“It's just a disgraceful performance, it's as simple as that,” Tavernier said. “In all the years I've been here, you know, with the consistency of poor performance that we're putting in, I’ve not experienced it before.
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“Some of us show our aggression after the games, after we get beat. You expect all the lads to take that in. But individually, we all have to look at ourselves much, much harder because it’s not good enough.
“You can get instructions from managers, but we simply have to put that on the pitch. We were just second-best. Be it first ball, second balls, there was just not enough fight.
“And I shouldn't be saying that for a player of a club like Rangers. That should be the given.
“You should want to fight, to go for every ball. Even if it's a scrappy game, you've got to make it a scrappy game, but it's just far too easy at this minute playing against us, and that's the hurtful thing about this all.”
Rangers return to Premiership action when they host Kilmarnock on Sunday afternoon. A trip to face Hibernian is then next on the agenda before the Old Firm semi-final next weekend.
Rohl faces a huge task to turn around a side that have failed time after time this term. And Tavernier has called out his team-mates for their part in the latest shambles in this disastrous season.
“Oh, I'm raging, this is what I'm saying,” Tavernier said. “It's the first time I've been in this position, being at this club, and the amount of consistent games were on a certain basic levels, we’ve not been performing. And that's what's making me rage.
“The amount of chats that we've had after games, you want it to sink into the players’ heads. But it just isn't at the minute, and that's what I'm raging at.
“I hope the [other players] are [as angry as I am]. I'm obviously not in their heads, but I hope they are, because we need to fix this, and the only way we can do this is by everyone playing for the shirt, chipping in and giving them their all.”
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