Rangers manager Derek McInnes has endured a difficult start to life at Ibrox, with two games producing no wins and plenty of familiar concerns.
A 2-1 first-leg defeat away to Jagiellonia Bialystok in the Europa League third-round qualifier followed a disappointing draw at Dundee United in the Scottish Premiership opener.
McInnes was appointed with the hope that he would represent a genuine fresh start after a succession of managers who arrived with promise before departing under heavy criticism.
Nine signings have come through the door this summer, with more expected, yet the problems that plagued Rangers last season appear far from resolved.
“We’ve seen a lot tonight of what I thought Rangers were last season,” McInnes said after the defeat in Poland, a damning assessment from a man who knows exactly what the club demands.
Much of the criticism directed at Rangers throughout last season centred on a familiar weakness, with fluid attacking play repeatedly undone by a soft defensive underbelly.
Neither Russell Martin nor Danny Rohl managed to fix those issues during their short stints in Govan, leaving McInnes to inherit a squad still searching for defensive solidity.
Jagiellonia carved Rangers open with alarming ease in the opening 45 minutes, capitalising on repeated lapses in concentration to take a commanding lead.
Just twelve minutes into the match, Thelo Aasgaard attempted an audacious spin on the edge of the hosts’ box, trying to squeeze the ball through a narrow gap in the defence.
Within a minute, the ball was in the back of Rangers’ net following a sharp counter-attack, the kind of cheap goal that has become a recurring theme.
“There’s no bigger drain on confidence for any player, team, support than losing cheap goals,” McInnes said, leaving no doubt about where he believes the pressing problems lie.
“There were mistakes for the goals, and I understand that can happen, but we have got to be far more stingy with our work, defend the goal with our lives, don’t give our opponent opportunities,” he added.
The central defensive pairing of Dujon Sterling and Emmanuel Fernandez looked particularly shaky throughout, drawing pointed criticism from former Rangers midfielder Andy Halliday.
“If you spoke to McInnes right now without a microphone in front of him, and you asked him, ‘Do you trust Fernandez?’, there’s no way he says yes, no way,” Halliday said on BBC Sportsound.
“I’m being very critical here, but I think Fernandez has every attribute to be a top, top central defender, yet it looks as if he hasn’t had the education growing up of the basics of being a central defender,” Halliday continued.
A triple substitution at half-time saw Cammy Devlin, Findlay Curtis, and Nicolas Raskin introduced, and all three contributed to a much-improved second-half display.
Curtis, 20, was the standout performer, having established himself as a genuine talent during a loan spell at Kilmarnock in the second half of last season that earned him a Scotland World Cup squad call-up.
The winger struck the post late on and flashed another effort just wide, raising serious questions about why he was limited to just eight minutes in the Premiership opener against Dundee United.
“The second-half performance was better, in an attacking sense. Findlay Curtis had a large part to play in that,” former Rangers striker Steven Thompson said on BBC Sportsound.
“His performance was one of the major positives from the evening,” Thompson added, with Halliday equally effusive in his praise for the young winger’s fearless approach and drive at defenders.
