Tom English slams Rangers ‘nightmare’ after what he saw v Kilmarnock
Tom English has no doubt which two players Rangers need back immediately after noting one area of particular concern following the 4-2 win over Kilmarnock on Wednesday.
While Barry Ferguson’s first game as the Gers’ boss may have ended with the Ibrox outfit adding three points to their Scottish Premiership tally, they still left a lot to be desired with their performance.
The fact they went 2-0 down and only made their way back into the clash due to a Cyriel Dessers-inspired comeback shows how far they still have to go in order to be more competitive.
However, there was one area of the Gers’ team that English wanted a lot more from in their game against Derek McInnes’ men.
English believes Rangers defence is a ‘nightmare’
Before John Souttar found himself injured, the Ibrox outfit’s defensive line seemed fairly solid with the Scotsman a real top performer.
However, as he’s spent a large chunk of the season injured, the Gers’ cracks have started to show and with Leon Balogun also out, the pairing of Robin Propper and youngster Clinton Nsiala – hauled off after half an hour against Killie – has started to show noticeable cracks.
| Team | Position | Points |
| Celtic | 1st | 72 |
| Rangers | 2nd | 59 |
| Aberdeen | 3rd | 41 |
| Hibernian | 4th | 40 |
Which is why it isn’t all that much of a surprise to see BBC Scotland journalist English singling out the defence as a problem and he thinks Ferguson will be desperate to have Souttar and Nsiala back as soon as possible.
“Kilmarnock will be kicking themselves – they could have been three or four ahead before the comeback,” he wrote via the BBC Sport website (27 February).
“Rangers have dug themselves out of not a hole, but a crater given the way they were defending. Fair play to them for that.
“They were resilient and played really well second half, got a lot of confidence going. But that defence is a nightmare.
“They can’t get Souttar and Leon Balogun back quickly enough.”
Ferguson needs to instil belief back into the Rangers squad
While the 2024/25 season is more or less a write-off after Philippe Clement got the Govan-based outfit knocked out of the Scottish Cup with a defeat to Queen’s Park, one of Ferguson’s main goals will be to instil belief back into his squad.
Indeed, they are still in the Europa League and are set to face Fenerbahce in their next game but, realistically, with teams such as Manchester United and Tottenham still in the competition, it feels unlikely that they’ll get all that far.
Next season, Rangers need to be far more competitive than what they have been over the last couple of years and they need to prove to their fans that they can match and surpass their arch-rivals, Celtic.
Only time will tell what the future holds for Ferguson and Rangers but if he can get them playing like they did in their second half against Killie, they could be setting themselves up for a solid campaign next term.
Which, at the end of the day is the least that Rangers fans should expect from a team of their calibre.