THE crescendo of boos that reverberated around Ibrox when Don Robertson blew the full-time whistle was the symptom of an all too familiar tale involving Rangers this season.
Despite racing into a two-goal lead and dominating Motherwell, Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s men conspired to drop another two vital points.
In truth, Rangers should’ve been out of sight, had it not been for the reflexes of former Ibrox youngster Liam Kelly, the Steelmen could’ve been looking at going in at half-time trailing by four or five.
However, the visitors made a triple change at the break and had a go which would see them head back down the M74 with a point.
The goals conceded, like numerous this term, were completely avoidable. Allan McGregor has come under fire for his role in both, however, when quizzed if he is concerned with the form of his number one, the Rangers boss said: “If we get a goal against us, it’s not only Allan McGregor.
“That’s very easy to say the fault of the goalkeeper. I think in the build-up we didn’t do technically well. We passed to players we never pass to when we are building up in this way so it starts with the build-up.
“You defend as a team, I think Allan is a good goalkeeper, a very experienced one so I think it’s very easy to put the blame on him because we conceded two goals today.”
Whether the 40-year-old deserves to be dropped is up for debate, van Bronckhorst is no stranger to ditching big players for the good of the team. He did so with Dirk Kuyt when in charge of Feyenoord when the former Liverpool striker was underperforming.
His words would indicate he still has full belief in his goalkeeper and he’s correct with his point about defending as a team. John Lundstram’s pass to Calvin Bassey was poor and that led to Motherwell’s opening goal. The former Sheffield United man was left to eat Kaiyne Woolery's dust as he sprinted by him towards the byline before squaring for Jordan Roberts to tap into an empty net.
Connor Goldson and McGregor didn't cover themselves in glory either as they appeared hesitant when the ball was fizzed across the face of goal.
If that was a bad one for Rangers to concede, the Steelmen’s equaliser was a defensive calamity. James Tavernier and Goldson failed to take responsibility from a lofted ball which allowed Woolery the opportunity to rifle past McGregor at his near post.
For Motherwell to score two goals from their first two efforts on goal tells a story.
Speaking after the game, van Bronckhorst conceded it was a cause for concern: “We have to be more ruthless defensively, that’s for sure, and we have to be more clinical in front of goal.”
The defensive fragility is something that has plagued Rangers all season, not just under the van Bronckhorst tenure.
On Motherwell’s previous trip to Ibrox, Tavernier and Goldson were beaten too easily in the build-up to Woolery’s equaliser in a 1-1 draw back in September.
The 1-1 draw with Hearts at Ibrox in October came as a result of a McGregor handling error.
Later that month, in the 2-2 draw with Aberdeen, Goldson put Lundstram in all sorts of trouble in his own penalty area that resulted in the Dons’ opener while Scott Brown’s diving header for their second was also poorly defended.
In the 3-3 draw with Ross County last month, there were mistakes made by McGregor, Borna Barisic and Calvin Bassey.
And we all know what happened at Parkhead.
The mentality of the players is once again being questioned. When quizzed after the match, Tavernier and van Bronckhorst were adamant it's not an issue with both citing the result achieved against Borussia Dortmund as an example.
However, the pressure of achieving a result against a team of that calibre pales into insignificance when compared to what is expected against the likes of Motherwell, Ross County, Hearts, Aberdeen the others.
Winning games consistently for Rangers in the domestic theatre takes a certain type of mental toughness and given the Light Blues have won three games in their last eight league fixtures, it appears that's something they are struggling with.
The crux of the matter is, whether they have a mentality issue or not, Rangers are simply not defending like champions.
Failure to rectify what has been a season-long problem will see the Premiership trophy paraded in the East End of the city come May.
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