Derek McInnes Faces Pressure After Rangers' Disappointing Start
Derek McInnes walked into Ibrox knowing the numbers. Now they’re stalking him.
Barring caretakers, he had already made the worst start of any Rangers manager after three games. After Thursday night, it’s four – and the mood inside the stadium told its own story long before the final whistle of a Europa League third qualifying round tie that ended in a 1-1 draw and a 3-2 aggregate defeat to Jagiellonia Bialystok.
Some fans didn’t wait to see if a late surge might force extra time. They’d seen enough.
A club built for Europe, a team miles off it
Rangers have spent millions on nine new signings this summer. McInnes’ rebuild was supposed to drag the club away from the drift that cost Russell Martin his job by early October last season. Instead, the new man is already talking like someone who knows the gap between expectation and reality is yawning wider by the week.
"The club is built for the Champions League and Europa League, but I don't think the team is ready for it and it pains me to say it," he admitted. That line will echo around Ibrox for some time.
He didn’t sugar-coat the diagnosis.
"We need to get more quality, we need to get more confidence into the team. That is the job I came into Rangers to do. Rangers finishing third last season, what was served up wasn't good enough. We have to get things moving in the right way quickly.
"Jagiellonia are a decent team with some good players and I think they're well coached, but Rangers at their best should be winning this."
That last sentence cuts to the heart of the anger. Jagiellonia were organised and spirited. Rangers were supposed to be something far more than that.
Good halves, bad habits
McInnes sees continuity – and not the good kind. For him, this is a straight line from the end of last season: a team that cannot put together a full 90 minutes.
Asked about the boos that rained down at full-time, he didn’t try to dodge it.
"I think it was justified, to be honest. What we served up in the second half was not good enough.
"In the four games we've had, there's been some good moments, but it's not been good enough and certainly not a strong enough 90-minute performance.
"It is not great to watch. My team go from some good highs in the first half to being as poor as we were in the second half and you have to say we didn't do enough."
The turning point, in his eyes, came with his own hand on the tiller.
At the break, Thelo Aasgaard made way for full-back Ross McCrorie. McInnes abandoned a back three for a four, shifting the structure in search of more from his wide players. Aasgaard, he argued, was "not getting involved enough" and the tweak was meant to free the wingers to hurt Jagiellonia higher up the pitch.
The idea sounded logical. The outcome was anything but.
Former Rangers midfielder Andy Halliday, watching on for BBC Radio Scotland’s Sportsound, didn’t dispute the theory. He simply pointed at the evidence.
"The reasoning makes sense, but it didn't work, it's as simple as that," he said.
"The only thing I would challenge about that is I thought [Djeidi] Gassama and [Daisuke] Yokota got loads of the ball relatively high up in the first half.
They lost all control without that extra body in midfield."
The control went, the initiative went, and with it went Rangers’ European hopes at the first real hurdle.
From Europa dreams to Conference reality
The defeat drops Rangers into a Conference League play-off against Czech side Jablonec. It is a comedown for a club that still talks about itself in Champions League terms.
The backdrop could hardly be more jarring. Just as McInnes tries to piece together a coherent side, he’s been hit with what he called "nightmare" news: Youssef Chermiti, the 22-year-old striker Rangers recently knocked back a big-money bid for, has suffered a long-term knee injury.
The plan had been to add wingers and defenders around a core already in place. Now the shopping list has grown. A new striker is a necessity, not a luxury. PSV Eindhoven winger Couhaib Driouech is set to become the latest arrival, but the holes are multiplying faster than the signings.
Halliday, again, didn’t mince his words about the squad build.
He believes the group "shouldn't be that imbalanced this late into the transfer window" and rattled off his own requirements: "three centre-halves, one left-back, two, arguably, three wingers".
Then came the sting.
"But the current squad that's available should be enough to beat Dundee United, it should be enough to beat Hibs and, to be honest, it should be enough to beat Jagiellonia Bialystok."
That’s the indictment. Not that Rangers are short of the players McInnes wants, but that they’re not doing enough with what they already have.
Shankland feels the weight
One of the big summer bets was emotional as much as tactical. Reuniting McInnes with Lawrence Shankland, after the pair came so close to wrenching the title away from Celtic at Hearts last season, felt like a statement of intent. Make him captain, make him the focal point, let the partnership run again on a bigger stage.
So far, it’s looked like a burden.
Former Rangers striker Steven Thompson sees a player carrying more than just an armband.
"It's the weight of playing for Rangers, the weight of not having the start that he wanted, and the weight of taking a bad touch," he said.
"At previous clubs, if you take a bad touch and give it away, you might get a few pelters. Here tonight, when Lawrence Shankland's link-up play wasn't that good or he should've had a shot when he didn't, they are on you and it is going to take him a bit to get used to that I think. It's not physical, it's mental."
Shankland is not alone in feeling that scrutiny. Every miscontrol, every sideways pass, every missed chance is feeding a restless support that has seen too many false dawns.
Fans split – but patience is thin
The reaction from supporters is already fractured, and the season has barely begun.
Simon has seen enough: "I wanted to give a manager time, but I'd cut my losses and get rid of McInnes now. Never thought he was the man for this job - and he's proving me right, big time. Spending a fortune and making us much worse."
Alan is just as blunt. "No more excuses. McInnes is proving that he is not up to the job."
Others are trying to hold the line. Jonny pushed back: "Folk saying McInnes should be sacked need to calm down. Look at the squad. Who would do well with it? Give the man time. He'll sort us in time."
The boos suggest the Jonny camp is shrinking.
Kris cut to the atmosphere: "Has McInnes had a match for Rangers yet where his side haven't been booed off the park?"
Alex stared down the road ahead. "I foresee another trophyless season ahead for Rangers - no cohesion, no fight, no skill, nothing. Rangers are woeful."
Kevin went further, reaching back to a different era for comparison. "Rangers look as a bad as they did under Mark Warburton in the Championship. In fact, that team would thump this one."
Those are not the words of a fanbase braced for a slow-burn rebuild. They are the words of a crowd that believes the club should be competing now.
McInnes says the team is not ready for the level Rangers demand. The question he cannot escape is brutal and simple: how long will he be given to change that before the club decides the problem is not just the players, but the man trying to fix them?
