Rangers' Struggles Continue Under McInnes: A Disappointing Start

Derek McInnes walked into Ibrox knowing the numbers. After three games, barring caretakers, no Rangers manager had started worse. Now it’s four – and the mood has darkened.

By the time the final minutes ticked away in Thursday night’s Europa League third qualifying round tie with Jagiellonia Bialystok, the exits were busy. Home fans streamed out even though one late goal could have forced extra time. The belief just wasn’t there.

A 1-1 draw on the night sealed a 3-2 aggregate defeat and shunted Rangers into a Conference League play-off with Jablonec instead of a Europa League push. A club built for Champions League nights is now scrambling for relevance in Europe’s third tier. The contrast is stark.

A new era, same old slide?

Twelve months ago, Russell Martin’s Rangers stumbled out of the blocks and never recovered. He was gone by early October. McInnes was supposed to be the reset, the safe pair of hands with a clear idea of how to steady a listing ship.

Four games in, the questions are already circling.

McInnes has been backed heavily. Nine signings, millions spent, a squad reshaped in his image. Yet the manager’s own verdict was brutally honest.

“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. “We need to get more quality, we need to get more confidence into the team.”

He knows what he walked into. Third place last season. A support that had already run out of patience with what they were watching. “What was served up wasn't good enough,” he said. “We have to get things moving in the right way quickly.”

The problem? They aren’t moving at all.

McInnes pointed to a continuation of last season’s flaws – a team unable to stitch together a complete 90 minutes. Spells of promise, then long, damaging drop-offs.

“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,” he said. “It is not great to watch.”

The crowd agreed. The boos at full-time were loud and sustained.

“I think it was justified, to be honest,” McInnes conceded. “What we served up in the second half was not good enough.”

The tactical gamble that backfired

The turning point came after the break. McInnes hooked Thelo Aasgaard, brought on full-back Ross McCrorie and shifted from a back three to a back four. The idea was clear enough: get the wingers higher, give them more of the ball, inject some urgency.

The manager’s explanation was simple. Aasgaard, he felt, “was not getting involved enough” and a change of shape might free up his wide players.

The theory sounded reasonable. The reality was ugly.

Former Rangers midfielder Andy Halliday, watching on for BBC Radio Scotland’s Sportsound, didn’t sugar-coat it.

“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.”

McInnes himself admitted Rangers lost their grip after the interval. A tie that should have been wrestled away from a “decent team with some good players” drifted from them. His assessment was stark: “Rangers at their best should be winning this.”

They weren’t at their best. Not close.

Injury hammer blow and an unbalanced squad

As if the European exit wasn’t grim enough, it came on the back of a nightmare development. Youssef Chermiti, the 22-year-old striker Rangers had just knocked back a big-money offer for, has suffered a long-term knee injury.

The plan had been to add wingers and defenders around him. Now McInnes needs a new centre-forward as well. The recruitment board is being rewritten on the fly.

He insists the club are “working so hard to get the necessary type of players”, with PSV Eindhoven winger Couhaib Driouech set to be the latest arrival. But the window is well advanced and the squad still looks skewed.

Halliday didn’t hold back on that front either. He argued the group “shouldn't be that imbalanced this late into the transfer window” and rattled off the gaps: “three centre-halves, one left-back, two, arguably, three wingers.”

Even so, his patience with the excuses is thin.

“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,” he said.

That’s the crux. Whatever the recruitment plan, whatever the injuries, Rangers are dropping games they should still have enough to win.

Shankland feeling the weight

The marquee reunion of the summer was supposed to be the trump card. McInnes and Lawrence Shankland, back together after pushing Celtic so hard with Hearts last season, now paired at a club with bigger resources and expectations.

So far, it looks like a burden as much as a blessing.

Shankland has been handed the captain’s armband, the responsibility of leading the line and the dressing room in one hit. Former Rangers striker Steven Thompson believes the striker is already feeling the strain.

“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,” Thompson 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.”

That mental toll is not just on Shankland. It’s seeping through the squad. Every miscontrol, every sideways pass, every lost duel is being judged against the standards of a club that expects to dominate, not drift.

A support on edge

The reaction from the stands – and beyond – tells its own story.

On one side, there is fury. Simon, a fan who had wanted to be patient, has had enough. “I'd cut my losses and get rid of McInnes now,” he said. “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 echoed the sentiment: “No more excuses. McInnes is proving that he is not up to the job.”

Kris added a stinging line: “Has McInnes had a match for Rangers yet where his side haven't been booed off the park?”

Alex went further, staring bleakly into the season ahead. “I foresee another trophyless season ahead for Rangers - no cohesion, no fight, no skill, nothing. Rangers are woeful.”

Kevin reached back to a painful comparison. “Rangers look as bad as they did under Mark Warburton in the Championship. In fact, that team would thump this one.”

On the other side, there is a smaller, quieter call for calm. Jonny urged perspective: “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.”

Time, though, is the one commodity Rangers managers rarely enjoy when the season starts like this.

Where does this go next?

Right now, the numbers are brutal. Worst start of any Rangers manager after three games, now extended to four. Knocked out of the Europa League qualifiers. Dropped into the Conference League play-off. A key striker sidelined long term. A squad that looks short of balance and shorter still on belief.

McInnes has been frank about the scale of the rebuild and the lack of quality. He has been open about the boos being justified. He has not tried to sugar-coat the performances.

None of that changes the reality. This is Rangers. The club is built for title races and European group stages, not early exits and uneasy justifications.

The manager insists he came to Glasgow to fix exactly this kind of mess. The question now is simple and unforgiving: how long will he be given to prove he actually can?