Rangers Get Their First League Win, but Is It Too Little Too Late?
Russell Martin’s Rangers, as the curtains draw on September, finally got their first win after six aggravating attempts. An unremarkable but deeply relieving injury time Max Aarons’ winner in the dying embers nudged Rangers past Livingston. Whilst he can claim that he has finally led the Glasgow outfit to a league victory, the win has done little to relieve the pressure on the ex-Southampton boss. It is fair to say that the rambunctious Rangers faithful have been vindicated in their original scepticism of the Englishman’s appointment so far.
Leading up to the Livingston fixture, the table made dire reading for Rangers fans. If Rangers recent history has been marked by mediocrity, Martin’s tenure thus far represents a descent into despair. Martin is the first Rangers manager to fail to win his first five league games in 47 years—a far cry from the club’s ambition to be the pick of the bunch north of the border, having not won a title since Steven Gerrard’s departure for Aston Villa.
Domestically, the club sat 11th and winless prior to the Livingston win. The underlying numbers did little to quell this: ranking 11th for goals per match, 8th in xG (less than minnows Falkirk and Livingston at the time) and last place in big chances created in spite of averaging the lion’s share of the ball at a mean of 63.6% possession.
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Meanwhile, the continent has proved a Belgian beating ground for Rangers with a 9-1 aggregate bashing from Club Brugge condemning them to elimination in the Champions league qualifiers by the joint third biggest margin in the competition’s history. After dropping down, the Belgians continued their onslaught as Genk defeated the ‘Gers in their first Europa League group stage match. The Glaswegian outfit face Sturm Graz and Brann in the coming weeks, and one would think that a failure to pick up points in these games would see the pressure on Martin intensify to untenable levels.
Off the pitch, events have been equally unsettled. Martin has met proverbial fire with fire, hitting out at members of the squad as having a ‘mentality problem’ deeming he has too many players ‘want to do their own thing’ who must drop their ego, perhaps aimed at the controversies surrounding Hamza Iginame and Nicolas Raskin, with the latter failing to force a move away from Ibrox as the window closed last month.
Martin may be unusually aggressive or direct in his media dealings but he’s certainly not oblivious. The ex-Rangers loanee has acknowledged that the fans are disgruntled with him (to say the very least) but has refused to resign. The Rangers board have full faith in him recently appointed Sporting Director, Kevin Thelwell has doubled down on his decision to appoint Martin describing him as ‘one of the best managers he’s ever worked with’.
Importantly, Martin was the first appointment of a new era of ownership of the Glaswegian giants after 49ers Enterprise, led by Andrew Cavanagh acquired a majority stake in the club this summer. Results thus far will likely have proved commercially and aesthetically dissatisfactory for the new ownership group, contributing to the ever-increasing weight on Martin’s shoulders.
He will hope that the Livingston game proves to be the norm rather than the anomaly. According to Kheredine Idessane of BBC Sport Scotland, Rangers first half against Livingston was one of a team rejuvenated ‘faster, more aggressive, more direct’. However, his side regressed to their subpar mean in the second 45, with Aarons’ goal failing to quieten vocal Anti-Martin cries from the following Rangers faithful even in spite of an away win.
Martin has stayed true to his avant-garde and expansive tactical philosophy that carried him through relatively successful periods at MK Dons, Swansea and Southampton, much to the frustration of the fans. Perhaps the sole exception to this was the season’s opening Old Firm where Martin retreated to a pragmatic outset likely motivated by the preservation of his job.
The question boils down to willpower. Will the board’s willpower to stick, perhaps naively, by its appointment outlast the remarkably vocal cries of the vast majority of the fanbase before results can turn in Martin’s favour? With Falkirk, Dundee United and Kilmarnock to come next in the league he has the opportunity to build a strong run of results before true tests against Hibernian and Celtic (in the League Cup). Ultimately, the next month will prove vital for the tenability of Martin’s position as he aspires to claw back a 9-point (and ever-increasing) deficit from league leaders Hearts.
By: Max Nicholls / @maxnicholls14
Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Isaac Parkin – PA Images