Chris Sutton criticises Rangers for underperforming in league this season
Chris Sutton says Rangers missed an ‘open goal’ to dominate Scotland this season by allowing Celtic to close the gap on them so quickly.
Rangers won the Scottish Premiership title by 25 points last season under Steven Gerrard but this season they trail Celtic by three points with just seven games remaining.
Sutton says that Celtic’s ability to close the gap should see Ange Postecoglou named as manager of the year regardless of how the title race ends up, and he told Daily Record that Rangers should have wrapped up the title considering how far ahead they were last year.
“Rangers might win the Premiership but Steven Gerrard had them 25 points ahead in the last campaign,” he said.
“Winning the Europa League would be an incredible effort. That would be a game changer, but, as well as they have done to reach the last eight, I can’t see it.
“Don’t get me wrong. I like Gio Van Bronckhorst. He was a good mate of Henrik Larsson’s when we were all in Glasgow together playing and he’s a good guy.
“However, having been so far ahead last term, this season should have been an open goal for Rangers.
“Postecoglou took over Del Trotter’s three-wheeler while van Bronckhorst was grabbing hold of a Lamborghini.”
Lost ground
Rangers have certainly lost ground in the Scottish Premiership title race considering they were so far ahead last year, but there’s been some big changes this year.
Gerrard left and was replaced by Van Bronckhorst, which obviously brings about its own problems and issues during the campaign. So he deserves credit for having them in the race this deep into the season.
With that said though, they were ahead in the race at the time and have since slipped to three points behind which is only a negative thing when you look at it.
Their European campaign has been a shining light though, as they made the Europa League quarter-finals for the first time since 2008 and they’re also still in the Scottish Cup semi-finals too.
Van Bronckhorst has the chance of an unprecedented treble in Scottish football, which would undoubtedly make him manager of the year and force Sutton to eat his words.
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